Panthers waive Lynch-Adams

Teams across the NFL started cutting down their rosters in preparation for the 2025 season.

One local was among the players waived on Monday by the Carolina Panthers.

Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams, a former standout at Warren G. Harding, didn’t make the cut as an undrafted rookie with the Panthers.

Lynch-Adams signed with the Panthers following the 2025 NFL Draft and a year at Michigan State.

In three preseason games, he ran for 36 yards on 14 carries and caught two passes for 10 yards receiving.

Phantoms add goalscoring forward

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Phantoms acquired forward Jesse Orlowsky from the Waterloo Black Hawks in exchange for affiliate goaltender Filip Vavro and a 2027 Phase II sixth-round draft pick.

Orlowsky, a 2007-born right-shot forward from Brooklyn, New York, joins the Phantoms after skating with Waterloo in the USHL and representing Team USA at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He recorded three points (one goal, two assists) in five games at the international tournament and posted two goals and six assists across 30 career USHL contests.

Standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 205 pounds, Orlowsky adds size, strength and offensive upside to Youngstown’s forward corps. He is committed to Harvard University following his USHL development.

The Phantoms are set to return to Youngstown at the end of August for training camp ahead of the 2025-26 season. The team begins its campaign in mid-September at the USHL Fall Classic and opens its home slate Oct. 10 against Cedar Rapids.

Season and single-game tickets are available by calling the Phantoms box office at 3307477825.

Hendrickson, Bengals reach deal

All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson and the Cincinnati Bengals have agreed on a new one-year contract, ending his hold-in, three people with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Monday.

The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team hasn’t announced the contract.

Hendrickson will receive a $14 million raise for this season, increasing his salary to $30 million. He is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent after the season.

Hendrickson missed the first seven days and five practices of camp, accumulating $350,000 in fines. He also received total of $104,768 in fines for not attending the three days of the Bengals’ mandatory minicamp in June according to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA.

Hendrickson led the league with 17 1/2 sacks last season, becoming the fourth player since sacks became an official statistic in 1982 to have two straight years with at least 17 1/2. His 57 sacks since joining the Bengals in 2021 are third most in the NFL over the past four seasons.

Hendrickson is a valuable piece to a defense looking to improve with Al Golden in his first season as coordinator.

The Bengals (9-8 last season) finished 25th in the league in total defense (348.3 yards allowed per game) and lost four games last season in which they scored at least 30 points.

Hendrickson is going into his ninth season. He was drafted in the third round by New Orleans in 2017 before signing with the Bengals in 2021.

With Hendrickson under contract, Dallas pass rusher Micah Parsons remains the last high-profile player who is in a contract dispute. Parsons remains a hold-in while both sides try to reach an extension.

Keys falls to Zarzua at US Open

NEW YORK — Pretty much from the get-go at the U.S. Open on Monday, Madison Keys could tell she wasn’t hitting the ball well or feeling very much at all like the self-confident player who claimed her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January.

After 89 unforced errors, including 14 double-faults, the No. 6-seeded Keys was gone from Flushing Meadows in the first round with a 6-7 (10), 7-6 (3), 7-5 loss to 82nd-ranked Renata Zarazua of Mexico.

Her first U.S. Open with the status of major champion — thanks to defeating No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final at Melbourne Park — was over just as it began.

She made so many mistakes off the spin-laden shots coming her way that Zarazua needed to produce just eight winners to earn the biggest victory of her career. Zarazua lost in the first or second round of all eight of her previous Slam appearances.

Yet somehow, it was Zarazua who managed to deal with any nervousness better, even though she was competing in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time and had only had a chance to hit there once a couple of days prior.

The 5-foot-3 Zarazua came into the day with a 0-6 record against opponents ranked in the top 10.

“I’m a little bit small in height, so coming in here, it was like: ‘Oh, my God. This is huge,'” Zarazua said about the largest stadium in tennis, which holds nearly 24,000 spectators.

When the match ended with Keys missing a forehand, Zarazua smiled as wide as possible, held her racket atop her head, then placed a hand over her face.

This one certainly was memorable, in part because it did not come easily and lasted 3 hours, 10 minutes.

Zarazua trailed by a set — after frittering away five chances to take the opener — and 3-0 in the second.

Quite a daunting deficit. But she never went away.

“Kudos to her for making me play a lot of balls today,” Keys said. “I mean, she’s a tricky player.”

While Keys was one of 25 American players in the women’s singles draw, the 27-year-old Zarazua is Mexico’s lone entrant in the bracket. She moved to San Antonio as a teen, and is now based in Florida.