HENDERSON, Nev. — Jermod McCoy said his emotions are already welling up before the Las Vegas Raiders’ preseason opener Thursday night. The matchup with the Arizona Cardinals will be the rookie cornerback’s first game since Dec. 21, 2024; soon, a nearly 20-month hiatus from competitive football will be over.

McCoy missed the entirety of his final collegiate season at Tennessee after tearing his ACL during an offseason workout in January 2025. While he fully recovered from the injury, a cartilage issue in his knee had teams concerned about his short- and long-term health. Those worries forced a fall to the fourth round for a perceived first-round talent in April’s NFL Draft.

McCoy, who spoke to reporters Monday for the first time since the Raiders selected him 101st, said he never had any doubts that he would be able to play this year. But he said taking the field at Allegiant Stadium for the first time will mean something extra because of his journey.

“I’m gonna just look around, take it all in,” McCoy said. “Just remember at any point, this game can be taken from you. So just always cherishing these moments.”

The Raiders have been managing McCoy’s knee since he arrived in Las Vegas, holding him out for the majority of their offseason program and one training camp practice so far. He said he is feeling good, however, and has been able to surpass the initial restrictions the team placed on his workload.

“I was on a little limit, but I’ve been able to exceed that,” McCoy said. “It’s been going real good for me.”

Aside from sitting out the team’s session Thursday, McCoy has participated in every competitive drill the Raiders have run during training camp. The corner has worked predominantly with the second and third teams in team periods and has gotten sporadic reps against the first-team offense. McCoy had some early rookie mistakes, which he acknowledged probably occurred because of rust. But he found his footing after a few practices and has looked solid in coverage since.

“I made a few plays and I felt real good,” McCoy said. “I was like, ‘OK, it’s ball again.’”

McCoy has shown a few flashes of why his talent is so highly regarded. Some tight coverage during one-on-ones and forced incompletions in team periods were reminiscent of his All-American campaign in 2024, when he had four interceptions and 13 passes defended for the Volunteers. McCoy said he has not quite returned to that level just yet, but he feels like he’s “almost there.” He credits Raiders wellness coordinator Alex Guerrero and the team’s training staff for helping him get to this point.

“From the day I came in until now, just the way I feel is just so much better,” McCoy said. “(Guerrero), all the guys in there, I just feel like they’ve been pouring into me. They done got me right.”

Through all the turbulence of the past few months, McCoy said he has tried to keep a level head. He learned to tune out the noise and focus on himself. But he said he couldn’t help it if his draft experience created a chip on his shoulder.

“That’s something that will be with me forever,” McCoy said. “I’m always gonna remember it. It’s gonna keep fueling me to push forward.”

McCoy will get his first chance to use that chip Thursday.

Cousins comes back strong

Quarterback Kirk Cousins and edge Maxx Crosby returned to team action Monday after being held out of Saturday’s practice by Klint Kubiak. The coach said their altercation Friday violated the team’s expectations and their actions deserved punishment.

Crosby remained disruptive in his return, causing pressure against the pass and blowing up an Ashton Jeanty run in the backfield. Cousins also shined, putting together one of his best practices as a Raider thus far.

The soon-to-be 38-year-old was dialed in from the jump. On his first throw of the day, he fired a touchdown pass to tight end Brock Bowers during a red zone team period. As the Raiders transitioned to move-the-ball periods, Cousins stayed strong. He audibled to a quick screen to receiver Dareke Young that went for big yards and let out a loud celebration afterward. Big plays to Bowers and receiver Tre Tucker came on ensuing snaps, and Cousins also connected with rookie receiver Malik Benson for an acrobatic reception down the sideline for a big gain.

Cousins’ best period was the team’s last. He commanded a two-minute drill down the field, finding Bowers and Tucker for chunk plays. Cousins then threaded a ball through three defenders to connect with receiver Jalen Nailor in the end zone.

While Kubiak said he is not married to Cousins starting the season at quarterback over No. 1 draft pick Fernando Mendoza, he has consistently stated that Cousins was brought to Las Vegas to play high-level football. Cousins has done that so far in training camp, and he continues to look like the team’s QB1.

Revolving rookies

Monday’s practice saw two of the Raiders’ standout draft picks at different spots. Offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III worked exclusively at center with the second team, and cornerback Hezekiah Masses took some reps in the slot with the first team.

Zuhn began training camp working at center with the twos and right guard with the threes. But since the fourth practice, the third-round pick had been playing predominantly right tackle with the second team. Monday was the first time in a week that he played an interior position.

Kubiak and his staff have made it clear that Zuhn’s versatility was a big reason they drafted him 91st. He played both left tackle and center for Texas A&M in his five college seasons, winning the Jacobs Blocking Trophy for the SEC while playing both in 2025. The Raiders have used Zuhn exclusively on the right side and at center while moving him around. The rookie admitted the changes have been a challenge, but he is confident in his abilities to handle them.

“Whatever the team needs, I’m gonna be able to do,” Zuhn said. “I just have to lock in and be at that position because I’ve learned the playbook from a whole, so I know what everybody is doing. I just have to lock into the specific technique, and it’s becoming easier and easier every single day.”

Masses has impressed since arriving in Las Vegas as a fifth-round pick and earned opportunities because of it, battling Darien Porter for the team’s second starting corner position. But on Monday, he played in the slot at times, sharing the field with Porter and top corner Eric Stokes on the outside. It was the first time Masses got interior snaps as a Raider.

Masses played mostly outside corner in his All-ACC season with Cal last year, so Monday was a newer experience for him overall, not just in the NFL. But he has already looked like one of Las Vegas’ better defenders in the back end, and getting him, Stokes and Porter on the field together probably creates the Raiders’ best coverage unit. While it may be unfamiliar for the rookie, Masses is ready to tackle anything right now with the way he is playing.

“Yeah, I’m in that zone, 100 percent,” Masses said. “I’m just out there making plays and being myself. They’re calling great calls, and I’m just out there executing.”

Even after the Toronto Blue Jays acquired José Soriano, arguably the top controllable pitcher moved at the trade deadline, teams that had lost out to Toronto in trade talks with the Los Angeles Angels continued to try to acquire the right-hander.

Multiple clubs reached out to the Angels in the days before the deadline with interest in acquiring Soriano, Reid Detmers and Zach Neto. After the Jays finalized their deal for Soriano, sending a three-prospect package to the Angels built around shortstop Arjun Nimmala, the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs were among the teams that then also reached out to Toronto to see if the Jays would be interested in moving Soriano again, league sources granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about deadline dealings publicly said. The Jays listened.

The Jays weren’t actively shopping Soriano after acquiring him, one source said, but did consider offers. Toronto was thrilled to land Soriano, but listening on offers — even for players teams intend to keep — is standard practice deadline due diligence for most front offices.

Already talking with Toronto about Jeff Hoffman, the Twins discussed a Soriano package built around the organization’s No. 3 prospect, infielder Kaelen Culpepper, and other pieces. The teams were clearly unable to line up when, one source said, Toronto made it clear the only way they would even consider listening further is if the Twins included top pitching prospect Riley Quick as the second piece in a multi-player package.

Minnesota promoted Culpepper to its MLB roster on Friday, and he homered in his debut. Soriano made his Jays debut on Saturday, throwing 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball against the Philadelphia Phillies.

It’s unclear where Culpepper would’ve fit with Toronto, as infielders Ernie Clement, Kazuma Okamoto and Andrés Giménez are all under team control for at least the next two seasons. But with elite young talent, it’s usually not that hard to make it work.

Pursuing Soriano is in line with how the Twins approached the deadline. A year after they traded away 10 players, including multiple talented relievers under team control and shortstop Carlos Correa, the Twins reversed course this deadline.

Open about ownership’s previous mistakes, Twins team chairman Tom Pohlad recognized his club’s need to make bold, aggressive moves that would improve the roster and perhaps capture fans’ attention at a time when attendance at Target Field continues to decline.

“This is a build-and-they-will-come situation,” Pohlad said in July. “The fans are not going to come back based on words.”

Three weeks before the deadline, Pohlad said the Twins would be buyers if they were anywhere close to the playoff picture. The team’s baseline goal was to fortify a bullpen under construction and add depth to the starting rotation. The Twins did that, adding two of their top targets, veteran relievers A.J. Minter and Hoffman, while also acquiring Baltimore’s Dean Kremer to pitch at the back end of the rotation.

But the Twins were dreaming bigger. With Minter and Kremer acquired well ahead of the deadline, the Twins spent most of the final three days in pursuit of a big fish.

Similar to many teams, the Twins saw Soriano as a prize catch, enough that they would at least consider parting with Culpepper, whom a few days later they promoted with the intent he’ll develop into the team’s long-term shortstop.

Soriano was considered a big fish at the deadline and the Twins hoped to catch him with a package that would have included Culpepper. (John Fisher / Getty Images)

Pohlad said the team’s aggressive approach to the deadline is a sign of things to come.

“We had a very clear strategy,” Pohlad said last Tuesday. “For us to accomplish the things that we want to accomplish, and be a consistently competitive team in the playoffs, and going deep, we have to make an investment into this team. We did that in a small way at the trade deadline. You’ll see more of it next year.”

Despite the Twins’ intentions, none of their talks resulted in a trophy fish. Early on, the Twins talked to the Angels about Neto, Detmers and Soriano and at least were willing to discuss some of their better prospects in deals. For Neto, who has three years of team control remaining, Los Angeles asked for a package centered around Twins top prospect Walker Jenkins, a player the Twins weren’t willing to discuss.

Soriano, the top controllable starter target for the Twins, landed in Toronto instead. He now sits behind Dylan Cease in the Jays rotation and gives Toronto a formidable top of their rotation for the next few years. So many teams talk about doing the deadline buy-and-sell, but in trading away veterans on expiring contracts (Kevin Gausman and Daulton Varsho) and acquiring Soriano, the Jays actually pulled it off.

Soriano has been one of baseball’s most reliable arms over the last three seasons, posting the 23rd-best ERA among starters with at least 400 innings pitched. Still, the Jays hope to help Soriano reach a new ceiling, as they have with Cease this year and Robbie Ray in 2021.

“He’s a different dude than Dylan,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said, “but I think that there are some parallels there that can hopefully be picked up pretty quick.”

The Jays and Twins did ultimately line up on one trade on deadline day, finalizing a move that sent Hoffman to Minnesota for three prospects minutes before the deadline. It became the latest in several Twins-Jays deals over the past year, including Louis Varland to Toronto in July 2025 and Tommy Nance to Minnesota last month.

“I feel like sometimes it just means that there’s better alignment on how that team sees your system as opposed to big mismatches,” Twins GM Jeremy Zoll said after the deadline about dealing with the Jays. “But in certain cases, we don’t line up and you can never know exactly how each team is going to value all your players. You’re just working as hard as you can to assess the market and where those value matches and mismatches are to create alignment to get it actionable. I don’t know exactly how that has come to be with Toronto the last few years.”

— The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma contributed to this story

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is suing their Premier League rivals Crystal Palace for defamation.

Court filings showed the claim was filed at the High Court in London on Monday against both Palace and ‘persons unknown’.

The legal action extends the mood of tension between the two clubs, which was stirred up again in August last year when fans of the south London club displayed a banner in Selhurst Park’s Lower Holmesdale Road end which included an image of Marinakis.

Sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed that the legal action relates to the banner.

In November last year, the Football Association charged Palace with misconduct relating to the banner. Palace contested the charge and put forward a due diligence defence, arguing that it had taken all steps that could reasonably be taken to ensure the banner was not displayed.

However, Palace were fined £50,000 in February after an independent regulatory commission found the club had breached Rule E21 of FA rules by failing “to ensure its spectators and/or supporters…didn’t behave in an improper, offensive, abusive, insulting and/or provocative” manner.

The Athletic has contacted Palace for comment.

There could be a tense atmosphere when Forest visit Selhurst Park on October 10 for a Premier League fixture.

The bad blood comes against the backdrop of Forest securing a place in last season’s Europa League at Palace’s expense, with Palace having been demoted into the Conference League after being found to have breached rules on multi-club ownership.

Forest had written to UEFA to ask for clarity over the situation and Palace’s ownership structure ultimately saw them removed from the competition, although they subsequently won the Conference League, beating Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in the final, which secured them a place in the Europa League competition in the upcoming campaign.

Forest appointed Oliver Glasner — the manager who had led Palace to success in the FA Cup, the Community Shield and the Conference League over the last two years — when he became a free agent at the end of his contract this summer.

No hearing dates have yet been set for the legal action.