With NFL free agency contract negotiation window opening March 9 at noon ET, CBS Sports is providing a position-by-position look at the free agent landscape. Interior defensive linemen may not get as much love or as large contracts as their edge defender counterparts, but the last few years have shown a disruptive interior can be just as valuable, if not more so. Look at the last two Super Bowl champions. The Seahawks (Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy II) and the Eagles (Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, Jordan Davis) had game-wrecking talent up front. Chris Jones made crucial play after crucial play for the Chiefs. Teams started noticing this trend — Milton Williams got a four-year, $104 million deal last offseason — but this year’s group doesn’t have a standout of that ilk.

Top five free agent defensive linemen

2025 team: Broncos

2025 stats: 7.5 sacks, 25 tackles, PFF’s No. 55 IDL (21st in run defense, 36th in pass rush)
Age: 29

John Franklin-Myers‘ career got off to an inauspicious start: cut by the Rams after one season and missed the entire 2019 season due to injury. All he’s done since then is become one of the game’s most solid interior defensive linemen. He’s had at least three sacks and at least 13 quarterback hits each of the last six seasons, and his 7.5 sacks in 2025 were a career high. His 10% pass rush win rate was eighth-best among all defensive tackles, per ESPN. He can move all around the defensive line, and at 29, he is young enough to earn another sizable contract.

2025 team: Falcons

2025 stats: 1 sack, 62 tackles, PFF’s No. 8 IDL (8th in run defense, 40th in pass rush)
Age: 33

Onyemata finished as a top 10 interior defensive lineman in PFF’s rankings for four of the last six seasons. Even though he had just one sack — his fewest since his rookie year — he was 17th in pass rush win rate among defensive tackles. He was also ninth in run stop win rate. His 53 tackles against the run were tied for fifth-most among interior defenders, and his strong 2025 should earn him a nice payday, even on a short deal.

2025 team: Cardinals

2025 stats: 6.5 sacks, 43 tackles, PFF’s No. 23 IDL (14th in run defense, 51st in pass rush)
Age: 39

They say “Father Time is undefeated,” but Campbell is giving it a run for its money. Back in Arizona — where he started his career back in 2008 — Campbell registered 6.5 sacks. Only all-time sacks leader Bruce Smith has had more in his 18th season or beyond. Expect more of the same from Campbell in Year 19: He generated at least 30 pressures in five straight seasons, and he had the third-highest pass rush win rate among defensive tackles.

2025 team: Lions

2025 stats: 28 tackles, PFF’s No. 35 IDL (35th in run defense, 23rd in pass rush)
Age: 31

Reader isn’t the two-way disruptor he was at the height of his powers, but he’s still a sturdy defender against both the run and pass. He had 20 pressures, tied for seventh among all nose tackle. Another short-term deal, perhaps back in Detroit, is in order.

2025 team: Texans

2025 stats: 3 sacks, 35 tackles, PFF’s No. 28 IDL (40th in run defense, 38th in pass rush)
Age: 31

Rankins provided two of the most surprising and delightful touchdowns of the NFL season with fumble return touchdowns against the Jagaurs in the regular season and the Steelers in the postseason. Rankins’ 38 pressures tied for 16th-most among full-time interior defenders, and though he isn’t always as impactful against the run, he’s no slouch in that department. The attention opponents had to pay to Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter certainly helped, but Rankins has been a solid interior presence for a long time.

One more to keep an eye on

2025 team: None
2025 stats: None
Age: 30

Is Wilkins’ career over? If so, it’s one of the strangest and most sudden ends in recent memory. Coming off a nine-sack 2023 with the Dolphins, Wilkins got a four-year, $110 million deal from the Raiders. Roughly one year later, Las Vegas released him. There were multiple issues at hand, though the main one was that the team and Wilkins reportedly didn’t see eye-to-eye on how he rehabbed his foot injury. The team terminated his contract, voiding tens of millions of dollars. There was also a reported locker room incident in which Wilkins kissed a teammate on the forehead, and the teammate took issue.

This is not a great interior defensive lineman class, as the top five suggests. It’s mostly plug-and-play veterans. Wilkins would be a difference maker if he’s healthy and back to prior form. Those are two major “ifs” though.

Five teams to watch

• The Bengals desperately need to fix their defensive front if they want to have a viable defense to support their explosive offense.
• With Onyemata set for free agency, the Falcons need to either retain him or replace him. Atlanta struggled to defend the run last year even with Onyemata, and with two light pass rushers on the edge, it needs some beef in the middle.
• The Lions have not only Reader but also Roy Lopez headed for free agency. The Lions’ rush defense took a hit after being one of the NFL’s better units in 2024.
• The 49ers‘ defense to disrupt much of anything in 2025, finishing last in sack rate by a wide margin. The run defense was better, but it was still average at best. There are some young players here, and injuries devastated the defense in 2025, but adding a veteran or two to be a steadying presence could help.
• Rankins, Tim Settle and Folorunso Fatukasi are all set to hit free agency for the Texans.

One big question

Is there a younger difference maker with his best football ahead?

As the top five suggests, this class is more full of reliable guys than true difference makers. It’s going to mostly be smaller deals in terms of length, with Franklin-Myers potentially being the lone exception.

Is there a player coming off his rookie contract who could still have some undiscovered upside? Former No. 33 overall pick Logan Hall is an option to fit the bill. He improved every year. At 6-foot-6 and 283 pounds, he has the lengthy athleticism to drop back into coverage, making him a unicorn up front. Hall is only 25, he had a 5.5-sack season in 2024, and he can move all over. Throw 25-year-old Otito Ogbonnia into this group, too. He played in just nine games last year, but he had 14 pressures in 2024 and displayed some pass-rushing chops prior to that, too. Maybe he’s a low-cost steal.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The men’s basketball program at California State University, Bakersfield won’t turn many heads with its last-place ranking in the Big West Conference. But when it comes to scandal, the school could be a top contender.

Cal State Bakersfield’s athletic department has been in upheaval since Aug. 29, when then-men’s basketball coach Rod Barnes opened an anonymous email from a tipster who alleged that Barnes’ temporary assistant coach, Kevin Mays, was also working as a pimp across four states. Other lawsuits, internal investigations, dismissals and finger-pointing have only served to deepen the department’s sense of crisis.

In the email, the tipster identified a woman whom Mays allegedly had trafficked for several months.

“FIX IT OR THE WHOLE STAFF WILL FALL,” the tipster wrote in all caps, adding that the email was a “first warning and a final warning.”

Barnes forwarded the anonymous email to the university’s human resources office, which sent it to university police, triggering an investigation that led to criminal charges against Mays.

Mays, who is being held without bond, faces a hefty rap sheet of 11 criminal and misdemeanor charges, including felonies such as pimping. He also was charged with possession of automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana with intent to sell. Separate charges cited him for possession of more than 600 images of youth or child pornography and distribution of obscene matter involving someone under 18 years old.

Mays has pleaded not guilty on all charges. His attorney, David Torres, declined comment to ESPN.

Sally Selby, the public affairs and communications manager for the Bakersfield Police Department, told ESPN that investigators are still conducting follow-up interviews “to determine if there are other victims or applicable charges” in Mays’ case.

As this case reverberated at Cal State Bakersfield, the school announced in September that Barnes and athletic director Kyle Conder had left their roles. Barnes ended a 14-year career as head basketball coach that included taking the team to an NCAA tournament and an NIT tournament. The school did not explain the reason behind their departures, and neither Conder nor Barnes agreed to ESPN requests for an interview.

Acting athletic director Sarah Tuohy and university president Vernon Harper said in a September schoolwide email that they were conducting national searches to replace Barnes and Conder.

Jennifer Self, Cal State Bakersfield’s senior director of strategic communications, told ESPN in an email that the charges against Mays were “deeply concerning.” She said that even though the allegations didn’t involve a student, the school consulted with a local human trafficking expert and offered awareness and education training on campus.

“We also viewed this moment as an opportunity to take a broader look at our athletic program,” Self said, adding that the university also launched a commission to make a more comprehensive assessment of the athletic program and recommend “structural and administrative changes” to better align the program with the university’s “mission and values.”

At the campus basketball arena in Bakersfield, set in the industrial flatlands of California’s Central Valley, Barnes sat in the bleachers behind the Roadrunners’ bench watching his former team’s December loss to North Dakota State. He declined comment when approached by ESPN after the game.

The anonymous message outlining Mays’ alleged pimping took Barnes by shock, according to a police account of an interview with him. Mays took the job as a temporary assistant coach in June at a salary of just over $3,000 per month, according to school records obtained by ESPN.

MAYS HAD PLAYED at the university from 2014 to 2016. The Runner, the student-run news site, quoted Mays in May 2016 as saying he planned to play pro basketball in France or Italy. Later, he joined the athletic department as a player-development coordinator, according to school records.

In his application for the position in 2019, according to school records, Mays wrote that he was driven by basketball, team building and helping young men.

“I gained lots of experience dealing with learning to lead young men and help them navigate the Division I experience in a successful manner,” Mays wrote. “CSUB helped me tremendously and I look forward to giving back.”

The school conducted a criminal background check before Mays’ appointment but found no problems, an October email from university president Harper noted.

But the anonymous email to Barnes, titled “IMPORTANT MESSAGE 911 911,” indicated serious problems.

“HE IS TRAFFICKING A GIRL BY THE NAME OF [redacted],” the email read, according to police records. “HE HAS BEEN TRAFFICKING THIS GIRL SINCE MAY,” the email added, listing Las Vegas, Oregon, Washington and California as his alleged operating area.

University police tried to contact the sender on Sept. 3 for more information. In a subsequent email, the tipster claimed to have known both the alleged victim and Mays through previous travel for sex work. The context of the email suggested the person was a fellow sex worker.

Mays told the tipster he was a professional gambler, according to the second email, and that he allegedly threatened to take away the tipster’s child if the person exposed his activities. The sender also gave police the alleged victim’s phone number and noted she previously had been arrested in Oregon on a DUI charge in a car that Mays had provided.

Further police reporting revealed that Mays had rented the car, but investigators determined that the contract used the university’s account with the Enterprise car rental franchise at Bakersfield’s airport. Police declined to share a copy of the contract, saying it remained part of an open investigation. The Sept. 4 police report states that the sex worker used the car for her work.

An Enterprise clerk and another, apparently more senior person whose identity is redacted, confirmed to investigators that the car was assigned to a university contract. The latter person told police “that only MAYS and other CSUB staff were authorized to operate the vehicle,” the report says.

If the police findings are confirmed, it means a state account helped Mays carry out his alleged human trafficking operation.

In response to an ESPN records request for Mays’ financial records, the university stated that Mays “has not been paid or reimbursed by the campus during his employment, outside of his salary.” Self, the school’s public information officer, told ESPN that university employees get “preferred” rates at Enterprise. She added that the school has “no records of Enterprise invoices paid by CSU Bakersfield with Kevin Mays as the renter.”

According to Kern County court records obtained by ESPN, university police determined there were no alleged victims connected to Cal State Bakersfield’s staff or student body. University police forwarded the emails to the Bakersfield Police Department, which verified the tipster’s claim and determined that the alleged victim was 23.

Police in Bakersfield also identified a sex advertisement posted by the alleged victim in Sacramento, California. The post noted that the woman worked “independently” and that she was open to being anything from “arm candy” for a party to a “no strings attached girlfriend.”

“I can morph into the exact woman you need and want me to be,” the ad read. “… I do it all. If you’re ready to have the time of your life, I cant wait to make some memories with you xoxo.”

Sacramento police ran a sting operation on Sept. 4 by scheduling a “date” with the alleged victim at a Sacramento hotel room they later determined had been rented by Mays. Her rates were $300 for half an hour and $500 for a full hour, according to the police report.

When interviewed by police after the sting operation, the woman identified Mays as her “boyfriend” and said that Mays “routinely covered the costs” for rental vehicles, hotels and flights when she traveled for sex work. The report also noted that police saw evidence of text messages between the two that showed Mays’ “involvement and control” over the alleged victim’s sex work.

When Mays was arrested the next day, he denied any involvement in prostitution and told police his girlfriend had possession of his rental car. A police search of Mays’ car and apartment yielded multiple firearms, including automatic rifles, and a large quantity of drugs, the documents said. Police, using a warrant, conducted a subsequent search of his phone, which revealed close to 600 images of child pornography, including some depicting children as young as 4.

As startling as the allegations are concerning the Cal State Bakersfield basketball program, a separate development with the school’s softball team had been ongoing. It came into full public view after a softball player posted allegations on TikTok of having been verbally, sexually and physically harassed by softball coaches Leticia Olivarez and James Davenport.

The complex, often difficult-to-decipher web of personal interactions between the athletic staff and student-athletes underscored a culture of chaos. Inappropriate activity either went unnoticed or uncorrected by people in charge until a full-blown public scandal loomed.

Mays was far from the only one worthy of scrutiny. A June 2025 university investigation report delved into allegations against Davenport of illegal weapons transactions, threatening a student with a gun in a video, having an inappropriate relationship with a student and speaking openly about potentially criminal, violent actions against the school.

Lori A. Blodorn, the school’s vice president of people and culture, conducted the investigation. She concluded that the allegations against Davenport were adequately substantiated to warrant letting him go. “What began from this seemingly straightforward allegation and assessment of how we ensure coach and team safety, ultimately became a complex investigation into a myriad of allegations by Mr. Davenport and against Mr. Davenport, primarily from a [redacted] softball student athlete,” Blodorn writes in her report.

She concludes by stating, “Based on my investigation, I find the following: Davenport engaged in unprofessional and immoral conduct, and dishonesty, in attempting to facilitate the sale of illegal weapons.” He was dishonest when questioned about displaying a gun when talking online with a student, she adds. Blodorn goes on to list four other conclusions that, she writes, are based on a “preponderance of evidence” and justify separating him from his job.

Davenport had previously filed his own complaint with the school, claiming to have been the victim of workplace violence.

THE SCHOOL ANNOUNCED then-athletic director Conder’s immediate termination on Sept. 8, a few days after Mays’ arrest, but he later stated in a lawsuit against the school that he was fired in August — before the tip to Barnes but after Conder said he had uncovered “potential crimes and misconduct” at the university.

Conder’s lawsuit claims he had tried to warn the administration about nefarious activities within the athletic department. He asserted that he was fired in retaliation for whistleblowing.

The lawsuit adds that the school investigation could not substantiate the player’s claims against the softball coaches enough to fire them. Davenport’s contract expired in May 2025, and Olivarez remains on paid leave with a contract that ends in May this year. The player who accused them has transferred from Cal State Bakersfield, and the TikTok videos have been deleted.

Self, the university spokesperson, said that school officials “strongly deny the claims” made by Conder and as defendants in the case intended to “challenge the legal sufficiency of certain aspects of Conder’s complaint.” She added that the university remained “open to dispute resolution discussions in an effort to limit the disruption to the campus community and ongoing university operations.”

Separately, two anonymous softball players sued the school and Davenport last year. It also alleged that Conder “had a pattern … of failing to respond when receiving complaints against Coach Mays.”

The school has since denied the entire complaint and asked a court to throw it out, according to court filings. Davenport, in his court filing, also denied all allegations made against him. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

In his own lawsuit, Conder says the school made him a “convenient scapegoat” to divert attention from the players’ lawsuit and the embarrassment surrounding Mays. He noted that the announcement of his termination came days after Mays’ arrest, making it appear “directly tied to the unfolding scandal.”

“Plaintiff’s termination was handled in a summary fashion, with no due process whatsoever,” Conder’s claim alleges. “… In reality, Plaintiff’s termination was motivated by retaliation and incompetence.”

Mays remains in jail awaiting trial. The preliminary hearing in his cases, originally set for Oct. 30, 2025, is now scheduled for March 13. A spokesperson for the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, declined comment to ESPN “to protect the integrity of the pending case.”

The drama inside the athletic department at Cal State Bakersfield has attracted the students’ attention, though some appeared unsurprised.

“We always joke in Bakersfield that we only make the news for the bad things because that stuff always just shines really bright,” student Seth Tolleson said. A scandal like this wasn’t what he expected when he transferred from a local junior college, he added. “It’s either zero or 100.”