CINCINNATI (AP) — Linebacker Oren Burks has signed a two-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, the team announced Monday.
Burks comes to Cincinnati after playing this past season with Philadelphia. He started the last three playoff games as the Eagles went on to beat Kansas City in Super Bowl 59. Burks moved into the starting lineup after Nakobe Dean suffered a left knee injury in a wild-card round game against Green Bay.
Burks was drafted in the third round by Green Bay in 2018 and spent four seasons with the Packers. He went to San Francisco for two years before heading to Philadelphia. He has played in 108 regular-season games, including 17 starts, with 161 tackles, two sacks and an interception.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said recently at the scouting combine that addressing depth at linebacker was one of the key areas they wanted to address in free agency.
Cincinnati will have a new defensive coordinator for the 2025 season in Al Golden.
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FILE - Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Oren Burks (42) leaves the field following pregame warmups before an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Philadelphia, PA. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit, file)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.
Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
