Welcome to NFL Daily, where your hosts look like the poster to the movie Twins when standing next to each other. That's right, it's nick at Night. It's nick Shook. I'm Greg Rosenthal. For the next three weeks, it's myself and Shuki, breaking down everything that could possibly matter, and probably a bunch of things that don't really matter. From the preseason Week That Was. It's that time of year, nick, and I know you're happy because you got your power back. Welcome.

Yeah, we are out of the Stone Ages, back in the 21st century. After three days without power, everything in my fridge went bad. We're restocked, we're refueled. We have electricity again, and I'll never take it for granted ever again in my life.

It's good to see you, my friend. I was worried that I was going to have to pay for a hotel room for you out of my own pocket because the NFL wouldn't do it. But then you texted hours, a few days later, and it was like, Thank God.

Yeah, it was like... I learned I had power when I was down in the flats in Cleveland, and it was like the Cavs won the 2016 title all over again. It was the greatest feeling I've had in months.

Okay, well, we're going to get to a big sports week This isn't the Olympics, but I do like the preseason. If you've listened to around the NFL and you read Shook on the site, we do our takeaways there. Yeah, you could only read so much into the preseason, but you can see certain things with your eyes, like certain rookies that look like they're a little more ready than others. The quarterbacks, it lies more than maybe other positions, but running backs, there are injuries that happen. There's depth charts that are happening. And it's that time of year where, especially with the Olympics being over, it's like, we're hungry, we're ready. We covered two preseason games on the show on Friday. Those are done. We got 14 that we're going to hit here. That's 28 teams. So let's not waste any more time. Let's start with Vikings and Raiders, because this actually, to me, had the biggest takeaway of the weekend. Let's actually listen to a clip of Justin Jefferson on the sideline, basically announcing a game before JJ McCarthy goes ham. I think he's going to have the full rights to JJ from now on.

I think I'm going to be the Jets, man.

I think I'm going to keep... Oh, there we go.Oh.

Here it is.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's Let's go. Mccarthy, 45 yards to Tristan Jackson. And with Justin Jefferson cheering on the sideline. It's 2013 Raiders. Yeah, that was Jefferson on a beautiful go route. Jj McCarthy throwing down the sideline, just how you draw it up. And yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, just seeing McCarthy McCarthy's reaction. I love these in-game announcing gigs that the players and coaches get. Sean McVay was awesome with our friend Mina Kimes and Andrew Siciliano on the Rams broadcast on Sunday. And his energy. It was almost like Shuki was like, oh, I got a quarterback because he called a shutdown later in the game, too, where he saw the formation before it happened. He's like, Oh, this is going to hit. Jj McCarthy saw the same thing, hit another nice long countdown. And yeah, JJ KJ. I'll get into why I think it was so noteworthy. It wasn't just the touch downs. But man, he showed out in this game in a way that I thought, Okay, do this two more times. And Sam Darnold, I don't care how well you play. You might be like Matt Flynn in 2012, you might be sitting on the bench with all that free agent money.

Yeah, that's the thing is that Sam actually played pretty well. It's just that McCarthy, statistically speaking, too, was so solid that it's very much a possibility. And this is actually going to surprise me because I thought of any of the rookie quarterbacks, he would be the guy that maybe had the longest road because the Vikings just seem to be so intentional about starting with Darnold and making McCarthy earn it, or at least giving him a long runway to get comfortable. Then he comes out in the first preseason game, and he looks just like he did at Michigan in the national title game. He's throwing touch downs. He's got his top receiver all fired up down the sideline. It's good news. It's a good start for him. We'll see, though. You're right. This could be like the old Russell Wilson job that he did back when he was a rookie in Seattle. It's not the first time. We've seen it happen before. We saw it happen with Mac Jones in New England, and this is a little bit more emphatic than even Mac Jones was that preseason.

Okay, so preseason to me is more important when it confirms what the practice reports of the people who are there every day say. The people who are there every day say, JJ has really exceeded expectations. He maybe looks like he's already better than Darnold, that he's better certainly in some aspects, like the red zone. And you actually saw that in this game. I agreed Darnold had a couple of beautiful throws. He one drive, so you're not really looking at too much. But he did hold the ball just a little extra in the red zone, and so that didn't work out for him. But it was really just JJ McCarthy playing against his future self, and he just showed a lot. Those two touch downs were great. The go ball was beautiful. It took a perfect throw. But the plays before that, where he knew where to go in short-yarded situations to keep the drive going, he had a dime as he was getting absolutely clobbered on one throw. He showed really good pocket feel, I think, moving around in the pocket. He was very aggressive, just in a way that I know Vikings fans are like, oh, Kirk Cousins wasn't consistently aggressive enough after he made mistakes weeks.

And yeah, McCarthy threw an interception in this game, and there were about two throws on crossing routes where he was just a tick late. And I thought our guest, Jack Jones, getting the NFL Daily bump with a beautiful interception, got JJ McCarthy early. So yeah, there was an interception, but these were out-breaking routes. It was just six, seven, eight throws in this game that were NFL throws in a way that we'll get to Bo Nicks and some other players. Bo Nicks had a solid game, but I didn't see any big-time NFL throws. He had six, seven, eight plays that were just like, I want to see more out of this guy. It got me excited. A nice scramble or two. And again, I know it's preseason, blah, blah, blah, blah, We talked about how when the intangibles are the headliner on a player that you're worried about how they might play at the next level.

But sometimes they can translate positively when in the right situation, when supported by the right coach, which is why this pairing with Kevin O'Kunal in Minnesota could be the perfect storm for a guy like JJ McCarthy to come in and make waves and actually win a job and surprise people like me who just didn't quite see it when it came to the physical skills coming out of Michigan. In order to really have that happen, though, you have to give the quarterback agency to do that and let him play like he wants to play. And that's what we saw. Now, it's one game. We'll see what happens the next two, but it's a heck of a start.

Right. It's mostly with backups against backups. Jalen Naila looked pretty good in this game. I just think he's starting to build a case, whether it's week one or week three. It was fun to watch, and the athleticism was there. On the other side was the other real quarterback battle that we have in the entire NFL, along with the Broncos. It was the Raiders. Minchou and Aiden O'Neill. I was there at practice, and they've been struggling all camp. I think Raiders fans came out of this game saying, phew. They had a nice performance against a very vanilla Brian Flores defense. It did not look like a Brian Flores defense. And then when I watched the game, I read those reports. I went back and watched it. I was like, Let's not get carried away. It was like Minchou was chaotic, but chaotic good, like chaotic fun, and had a very nice TD throw. Aiden O'Neill was good, but there was this one where he's on the run and tries to make an athletic play, and it was a total duck. None of them made... Neither one of them blew me away. I think it just confirmed, again, what we've heard in camp, which is maybe like, Minchou, a little bit of an edge.

He probably gets the start in the preseason game next week and can maybe cement the job. It's hard to know which way they're leaning, but it sounds like Minchou has been better.

You know what's funny is, as they've struggled in camp, the prevailing word coming out of Vegas is, wow, this defense might be really good. It might be special. I did radio in Vegas on Friday, and I was asked, Hey, look, the Browns went to the playoffs last year with five different quarterbacks and Joe Flacko, and it was because of their defense. And, Can the Raiders do something similarly? And I was like, Hmm, it's a big expectation to put on a team like that. But if you guys are seeing a strong defense in camp, is it a product of average quarterbacks or is it an actual good defense? I don't know. We'll see. But it was interesting that that's the takeaway they had. It wasn't like, Oh, both of our quarterbacks are just... We know their ceilings. We don't quite know Aiden O'Neill's ceiling, but I think we pretty much know. And we know Garner-Minschuh. You said chaotic, but chaotic good. That is Garner-Minschuh in a nutshell. If that's their peak, then they have to start turning toward their defense for hope in that.

And they moved the ball, which that's all you can ask for. Aiden O'Kunal moved the ball, too. He didn't get the touch down. Like I said, yeah, I think Minschuh just looked a little more comfortable. I was interested, and then we'll move on to our next game. We're going to go heavier early because they were the more interesting rookie quarterback games, and we'll fly through the end. But I did watch their usage of Michael Meyer and Brock Bowers, their two tight ends. People say the preseason's vanilla. I got to say, they showed a lot. They had Bowers as a fullback. They had him offset. They had them both on the field, blocking in the run game on the same side. They had them both on the field, blocking, passing. They mixed up how they used those two guys. To me, that's going to be the whole key to their offense, those two guys together. Bauer has made a couple of plays after the catch, which showed his burst. I mean, he just looks like a wide receiver just like he did in college. All right, let's go to the next game, which is Caleb Williams making his debut in a bear's uniform against the Bills.

I'm going to listen to a play, nick. That wasn't a super highlight play, but it got my attention.

Slot right and singles outside the numbers for Caleb Williams. Third down and long takes the snap against a four-man rush. Great protection. Williams whistles a pass. It is caught, and it should be enough for a first down across the 40 to the 41-yard line to DJ Moore. There you go. The first completion as a Chicago bear, 13 yards and a first down. Great protection for Caleb and a nice tight spiral.

I love that being the first completion he ever makes as a bear because he got to the entire opposite side of the field on his read. That's awesome. On third and 13. And yeah, he got great protection, but his first guy was covered. And for him to go all the way from right to left and put a dart, take him out. You don't need to see too much in the preseason, but that's the stuff you got to love.

Yeah, we know he has the arm talent, but what I really loved about that play was watching him process and not freak out because the speed of the NFL game will fluster a lot of young quarterbacks, and you see there's a moment in the pocket where he hitches, where he goes, There's nothing on the right. You can see almost him processing in real-time where he slides his eyes to the left, sees DJ more there, and then just rips one. Because you draft that guy at number one because he has that type of arm talent. If he's able to do that and process at that speed, obviously, defenses are going to get more complex during the regular season, and he's going to face more pressure, and he's not going to get protection like that all the time. But if he's able to actually get from one to 2-3 at that speed, then it bodes pretty well for his future.

Yes, he held onto the ball quite a bit in this game, actually. But let's also listen and watch. Again, if you're watching on YouTube, to one other play, he did not have a chance to hold the ball.

Football at just about the 40-yard line. Snap back, pressure coming. He dumps it off, cuts with left 40, 45, 50. Buffalo 40 to the 30, cutting at the 20. Turfstate got him with a man on his back to finish it off. The bears will be in the red zone of Buffalo on a dump off pass. Under pressure, Caleb Williams dumps it off, and it's a catching run of 42 yards on a bear's first down.

Any thoughts there? Because when I first saw that, I was like, Oh, that's just a fluky play, but it's badass, actually.

Well, I just like that there were some blockers downfield for him. I almost sat back and was like, Was that designed? I'd love to run that back two or three times. No, it was not. It wasn't. It was obviously a dump off under pressure. But again, a guy finding a way to make a play out of nothing, fluky a little bit. But it's also very weird to see DeAndre Swift wearing four. I just have to say that.

Okay, I agree. There's been reports DeAndre Swift looks like one of the best players on that team, so in camp. Okay, maybe he's going to take where he was last year and stay at that level and go up because he leveled up DeAndre Swift as an NFL player. But that was Caleb creating. He said, I was like, How does that play even happen? The reporters asked the same thing, and he said, Well, his gloves, DeAndre Swift's gloves are so bright that he just saw a flash because he had nothing there. And that's what... Maybe it seems fluky, but I honestly don't think there's many quarterbacks in the NFL that could have possibly made that quick of a reaction and made that quick of a play in that creative to just flip it in that second. It was a bum rush. He had no hope in that play, and it turned into a big play. So that's awesome. The Bills actually played their starters for an entire quarter. And yeah, Caleb had another play. Probably his best throw of the game was this one where he's rolling out right and just has the Mahomes type of throw.

And so he showed everything you would want to see in a couple of drives. And apparently, they've struggled that camp against the Bear's defense but looked good in the precinct, so that was nice. The Bills, they didn't show too much in this game. They played a quarter with Josh Allen. One thing I noticed, Khalil Shaqir was out there in 12 personnel, and MVS not getting a lot of attention. Davis, their backup running back was getting a lot of... Maybe the only good thing about that offense, he's their backup running back. Otherwise, not a lot with the Bills there.

Not surprised that MVS didn't get much attention there. It's going to be an interesting and potentially trying year for the receiving core. But again, I I feel better about them with Joe Brandi and Osi than I did with Ken Dorsey. So we'll see. They'll work it out. Personnel might not be quite as good at the top end, but we'll see. We'll give them time.

Yeah, they've had a lot of injuries at safety right now. They sat Von Miller and Matt Milano in this game, but pretty much played the rest of their starters. I just think Shaqir is going to catch 90 to 100 passes in this offense. And yeah, Kean Coleman was out there every single snap with Josh Allen, so that's a great sign for him. Their top three is definitely Shaqir, Coleman, and Curtis Samuel. So just learning a couple of things. Austin Booker, this fifth round pick as a pass rusher for the bears, has made noise back to back weeks. They really need some pass rushing help, so maybe he will provide it. All right, let's go to the other rookie quarterback that my eye the most, at least this weekend. It was in Washington when Jaden Daniels faced the Jets. Third down and six.

Opening possession of the day for Washington shotgun formation for Daniels.

Spread it out on third down.

Daniels pulls the trigger, looking for the deep ball down the sideline, and it's hauled in.

Deyame Brown. Great snag for the first down. You go ahead. I'll let you lead off what you want to say about Jaden Daniels in the start of the Commanders.

I love this throw so much because this is what the folks in Tempe saw when Jaden Daniels was a freshman in Arizona State. This is what the folks in Baton Rouge saw when he was the Heisman Trophy winner at LSU. This is the natural ability right there. I see a guy open, quick hit, step up, flick the ball right into the bucket, right over a defender. Dianne Brown makes a great catch. This is the future and the potential of a guy like Jaden Daniels. This is why they drafted him so high. And not only that, not only that play, but then they finish off a drive with a little read option, which takes advantage of his mobility. It was almost basically a walk-in, touch-down. Defense didn't do the best job when he came to contain. But that's what the potential is right there. He's a guy who's mobile, who is talented with the arm, who can flick the ball down the field, and who can get out and get loose as well. So love that. Obviously, he didn't play a ton in this game, but that was the start for him. That was the only drive, yeah.

Eventually, we'll get Dan Quinn to stop making him take the baby steps in the hole. Like, he's going to start, but he's not our starter yet. He's your starter.

I don't know why. There is no baby. I mean, he's the one that started the game. It just got the start of his treatment. So they just, for whatever reason, aren't announcing it publicly, but they're treating him now like a starter, which is nice. I do like the chutzpa on this kid, Jaden Daniels. So after the game, Sam Cosme, their offensive lineman, actually was during the game in one of those interviews with the broadcast, revealed that, yeah, he checked into that play. It was third and six. I think they were only going to have one series, so that could have been his last play of the game. And he saw something with the way the Jets defense was playing it. I think a screen was called, and they were going to run right, throw it right into it. And he didn't like the look. He didn't like their chances. And he calls a bomb. He calls It was like a go to Deionne Brown, and he hits it. After the game, Dan Quinn asked about it, and he compared it to Top Gun with the whole negative Ghostwriter scene. He's like, Can I buzz down?

Can I buzz? It's like asking for forgiveness after the fact instead of asking for permission. And Dan Quinn loved it because he hit the throw. And that's what you want out of your quarterback, man. I mean, that is badass right off the bat that the rookie is just taking charge and then delivering and convincing the coaches. Okay, trust me, man, I'm going to do what I want to do.

And that's the beauty of it right there, is he could have put the ball right on De'Ami Brown, and De'Ami Brown dropped it. I'm sure they still would have been just his throw with his decision to do that. You get one-on-one coverage, you trust your arm, you trust your teammate. Hey, look, I'm going to go make a play. That's the type of leader that you need on this team.

It's a tough throw, though. I mean, it's down the field. He had to put... He actually was very good coverage, I would say, on the play. It's not like Brown had a separation. No. It was interesting. Brown was out there, by the way. So this has been a little bit of a surprise in Washington. We'll see. Jahaan Datsun was playing very deep into that game, and Diamy Brown's on the outside. So I think it's a new staff.New.

Regime.new.

Regime.they're just figuring out things. Dotson is going to be in their top three wide receivers anyways. I think he's going to play more in the slot maybe than he did before, but it's just something to watch.

Yeah, it's fine. You earn it. It's fine. It's not your guy. Go out there and prove it. Dan Quinn is a little old school in that way, the same way he's treating Jaden Daniels right now. Hey, go out there and earn it. Go play deep in the second half. Okay, that's fair.

Yeah, but I didn't expect Diamy Brown to maybe be ahead of Dotson. I don't know. I do worry that they're a little thin in terms of playmakers, but if Jaden Daniels is great, that's all that really matters. This year for the Jets, they played their backups, so there wasn't really much to take out of this game. Braille and Allen looked pretty good as a second running back. You got me some Braille and Allen takes.

He had a nice little pop. He had a little pop. He's a physical runner. I liked his little cut-ups, his highlights. I was like, Oh, okay, get out in space. He runs downhill. All right.

Yeah. At the risk of repeating myself, Chris Westphalian, we always would talk about on this part, on around the NFL, how preseason, the one thing you can really tell is the young runningbacks, the rookie runningbacks, because you can just see which ones have it and which ones don't. I'm not going to go all the way that Breland Allen is a difference maker, but he looks like he can be a good backup, and they have some good young juice. I actually like their third guy, too. Now, I'm forgetting his name. What is it? I'm blowing it. But Breland Allen played well in this game. He's going to be the backup. Also, Mike Williams is off the PUP list. And I did hear Robert Salas say, It's going to be a slow buildup, like playing against error, and there's some hope he might be ready for week one, but maybe not fully. So that's just something to keep an eye on. I feel bad now. I was like, Okay, that was it for the big-time quarterbacks, but we still got three left. But sorry, Broncos fan. Bo Nicks just feels like he's the guy that's going to get left out of the excitement.

And yet they're excited. He goes He was 15 for 21. On Sunday, they moved the ball. It was one of the highest scoring preseason games I can remember. How did that game finish? 34 to 30, Broncos and Colts putting on a show. And yeah, I wanted to be more excited. There wasn't really many exciting throws, but he mostly made quick decisions. And they moved the ball when he was out there, and he was playing with the second team for the most part, and he'll get a chance to start over Jared Stittam, who started that game. He'll He'll start next week, and then Sean Payton will probably decide who's the starter. It's probably next at this point.

Yeah, and I'm really curious to see how he performs with their pseudo starters in the second week of the preseason, because I think that's going to tell us the most. I thought it was fitting that the touch down pass that he threw was on an RPO. It was like shades of Oregon's offense. I was like, Well, that's where he's comfortable. He made a quick decision. He ripped the ball to the outside right in front of the corner pylon. It was a pretty throw. It wasn't like a jaw-dropping throw, but that's him doing what he already knows how to do, which will help him at this level.

Right. I tried to watch all of his throws, and there wasn't much second reaction. There were actually a couple of plays where he tried to make tougher throws, and those were the incompletions. That said, he seemed to know where everyone was in the field. Like I said, more than not made quick decision. Tim Patrick, who's been out of the league for a couple of years with devastating injuries, made the first catch of this game from Jared Stittam. He was maybe too excited, and then he got a taunting penalty, but just nice to see him. He seemed like a great dude and was off to having a really great career after being an undrafted player. So he's back healthy. That's good to see. Anthony Richardson, the couple drives he had, just a little bit off, and which is going to be the problem, where he was just a little bit off on a third down throw, incomplete, and then a little bit off on another one where he slowed his receiver down so they couldn't run. And I think that's the issue. He's going to make good decisions, but that was the issue today in a very brief appearance.

Yeah, he nearly threw pick, and he had his intended target bail him out by getting a ball up there to bat it away and basically play defense. I expect some rust. It's okay. Just give him some time to get acclimated. He's always going to be a little bit off. That's just who he is. His accuracy is not his greatest strength, but that's not why they drafted him. So shake the rust off over the next couple of weeks. Get ready for week one.

Okay, we've hit the first-round quarterbacks, except for one, nick Shook, that played over there. We already had Drake May on on the last show on Friday's show. We will hit Michael Pennex in his debut with the Falcons after the break and all the rest of the games. Okay, we're back on NFL Daily. And yeah, just thematically, nick, we're going to keep going through these rookie quarterbacks. There's a lot of them this year. They're taking over. Michael Pennex doesn't have a chance to start week one, but he is going to play a ton in the preseason because Kirk Cousins, I don't think, is going to play at all. Pennex looked pretty good. Nine for 16, 104 yards. Did hit one nice go ball. I believe that was to Blair. I don't even know who Blair is. It's that time of year in the NFL. But did the thing where he held the safety for just a half a second and then looked over and dropped one in the bucket. Had maybe one or two other passes that were a bit inaccurate, but other than that was Bo Nicks in it and just hitting a lot of receivers underneath and moving the ball pretty well.

So it was like a par. It was like a straightforward 370-yard par 4, and he got on the green like 25.

Yeah, a lot of width, a lot of room to miss.

It was just fine. It was fine. You didn't get to see a lot of exciting pennex, but it was fine.

No, but the details were what mattered to me. This is one of the games I watched live, and as I'm sitting there watching him, I'm thinking, Okay, that's what he did well at Washington and at Indiana. He's got that arm. He uses that live arm to his advantage. He'll throw a little bit off a back foot or not quite perfectly balanced with his feet just to whip it out there because the guy's open and the window's closing, and he'll get it there. It showed that time and time again. He didn't have a ton of time to play before they replaced him with Taylor Heineke, but when he was in there, all of his strength that's carried over, which is what you want to see. I would love to see a full half of him, if not more.

I think he'll play a lot in the preseason. I mean, look, he got 16 throws in however many drives that was. I guess it was, what was it, two? Yeah, he's got to play plenty because one thing that actually made him look great was Taylor Heineke, who came in and went four for 11 for 11 yards.

It was really ugly. I'm a little concerned about the Falcons' offense overall because they lack a lot of juice. They had We go situations twice, and that game came in with no points in the fourth quarter.

Yeah, they're really benching guys, though. These teams in the McVeatry go hard in terms of their benching, so it's tough to take too much out of it. I know Heineke's playing with the third stringers, but You just wonder where his head is at that he's stuck in this terrible position. And then the guy behind him, Nathan Roark, went three for 13. So the two of them combined to go seven for 24. That's not even a good batting average for 48 yards. And poor Roark was cut a few hours later, essentially. I did it. One last takeaway for the Falcons. Unfortunately, they lost Breland Trice, who was their third-round edge pick for the season with a knee injury. And that's a position that's among the worst position groups in the league. And he was practicing with the starters and maybe had as high a ceiling as anyone they have just because they don't have anyone. So you really hate to see that for that young man and for that team. I do want Can I go to the Dolphins quickly? They didn't play many starters early any either. But can you guess what guy got me excited on the Dolphins?

What guy got you excited on the Dolphins? Like I said, this is a game that I watched live, but now I have to access my memory. It would be Jalen Wright, the running back?

Yes, that was it. This was the guy. This was the guy of the weekend that I was like, Oh, I'm in. I'm drafted Jalen Wright, two rounds higher in fantasy.

Yeah, he's got it. He's definitely got it. He's got some juice. I see why they traded up to draft him. All the talk about him when he came out of Tennessee, it's there. It's definitely there. This is one of the deepest backfields of the NFL. Think about Devan Achan. You've got Rahim Moster. Now you got this kid. You can just cycle him out, and you've always got fresh legs. You got all those weapons on It's like, Load up, baby. Just let it fly in this offense this year. Very fun to watch him. But I will say this, Greg, you talked about Brele tries getting hurt. A ton of guys got hurt in this game, and I think a lot of it had to do with the field. The field was terrible. It was just sloppy. Big chunks of turf coming out. Not good. I understand it's hard to grow a grass field outside. Sometimes I get it, but this is probably the worst surface of the weekend where they showed close-up shots, and you said massive chunks of sod just on the ground, falling left and right, people losing their footing. Got to get it better before week one.

That game was in at Miami, right? Yeah, there was in Miami. They've had a million different events there. They had, obviously, the soccer tournament there just a few weeks ago. I don't know. Maybe we got to be prioritizing keeping that football field first. They got They got tennis. They got F1. They're rolling people through Hard Rock Stadium. I really thought Wright was really exciting and impressive. On inside runs, good vision, crazy burst to cut across field, which you probably can't get away with against starters, but I don't know.

You saw that play where he went right and there was nothing there, and he reversed direction around the left-end.

But also the shutdown run, too, where he gets skinny in the hole. He He can do that, too. I do have a takeaway that they'll use him, and they got too many runningbacks. You do wonder, was there any team would be desperate enough to give a good pick for Rahim Moster? I doubt it. But if the Cowboys would, I think the Dolphins would consider it. They definitely would consider just, Hey, if you want Jeff Wilson for a fifth, we could do that.

Because I don't think he makes that team.

Jeff Wilson is better than any running back on the... He's going to make the Dolphins anyways. They have four good running backs, but he's better than anyone on the Cowboys. He would be the backup in New Orleans who could use a running back. I don't know. Maybe Moster if they got really crazy, but why would he-The crazy thing is Moster's age and he's It's too good.

You know where his production is and everything else. It's like, nah.

Also, the Dolphins love him. It's a good problem to have. Obj, by the way, still not really doing anything. At some point, that's an issue. Aaron Brewer, their starting center, is out a few weeks. The dolphins, that's a problem. Kevin King was out of the NFL the last couple of years because of injuries, I think two years ago because he just maybe wasn't totally feeling it.

It was a mental health thing, yeah.

Yeah, but then last year when he was trying to come back, no one knew. I didn't know this. He tore his Achilles when he was trying to come back. He was out there. He was a big winner with a nice-He had a pick.intersection.

In that game. Yeah. Big moment for him. Really a heartwarming moment. Every time somebody goes through some struggles like that, and you see it, even if it's preseason, it's always nice. It's just nice to see.

He has some talent, and he He could be playing pretty significant snaps for them at cornerback, the Falcons. All right, let's wrap with, not wrap, but wrap the rookie quarterback section. The agenda, it's being pushed. On this podcast, certainly on the Block Party podcast hosted by my friend Adam West, and of course, that boy Wolf, Ryan. Look, Spencer Rattler. People are excited about Spencer Rattler. I know he's a fifth-round pick, but he gets out there. He shows an impressive arm. He shows some athleticism with some runs, and then he gets a chance to go have a game-winning drive, and he commonly moves him down the field and gets that game-winning drive. So let's go. I'm pushing the agenda. Only See if Derek Carr is struggling in the regular season, but at least give Rattler the backup job. If this Saint season is not going anywhere, maybe this is not a normal fifth-round pick. This is a guy that could have been a second-round pick. It's a nice little debut for him.

Yeah, he could have if he had taken more ownership of his collegiate career, but that's neither here nor there.

This is one where I'm... It's a little tongue in cheek, but he's having some fun.

Yeah, it's cool. It's fine. I mean, sure, give him the backup job. He's got some moxie and some physical tools. Why not?

Jake Kanner actually played pretty well in this game, who is the guy battling Rattler for the backup job. But Rattler had one of the best throws of the game. I forget if it was either dropped or there was a penalty, so you didn't get credit for it, but a beautiful throw down the field. Puka Nakuwa's brother was involved in this game-winning drive. You know I'm putting in the work for NFL Daily listeners when I'm watching Samson Nakuwa late on my Saturday night in a game-winning drive for Spencer Rattler over Clayton Thun in the Cardinals.

I'm not sure if they're related, but that's yet another Nakuwa in the NFL. There was a Kai Nakuwa in the NFL for a little bit. Something about that name. I don't know. Well, I know.

The other one. Well, I know it's Puka's younger your brother. And they got another one coming up that was in the Polynesian Bowl this year, which is high school players. So don't ask how I know that, but I did.

Because you're a sicko, and we're all sickos here. That's why you come to NFL Daily for football sicko talk.

Yeah, there weren't a lot of starters in this game, so otherwise there wasn't a lot. Bradley really has been playing well at training camp. According to everyone, they are playing better and better, that they're getting improved quarterback play. And so that's exciting to see. Kool-aid Mckenistri was out there for a little while in this game and given up a lot of passes. I think there was some thought, would he start for this team? The answer is no. They have a really good trio to start, Paul Sanadebo, Marshawn Latamor, assuming he gets healthy, and Alante Taylor. Taylor has that job over Kool-Aid McKinnis Street, so that's a little bit of a nugget. Then, supposedly, according to the Cardinals people, Clayton Toon, greater than Desmond Ritter. He certainly was in this game, but even at practices. If you're interested in that battle, that is the backup quarterback battle in Arizona. You don't look that interesting. Can I interest you in a Trey Benson was in this game and didn't do a lot? Might be the backup running back.

How about that? I'm interested. I'm still curious about that trade to acquire Ritter. I understood they had two, and he played one game last year and everything else, and you got Kyler. But I'm just like, really? You just were like, one for one, player for player.

You gave up to Rondale Moore, who unfortunately is now out for the season. But Rondale Moore, I guess maybe just fit what they wanted to do on offense. But he's an NFL player. I guess Ritter, yeah, maybe. It was just two guys who were trying to revive their career. So I get why they did it, but it might not work out for Ritter there. All right, let's go through the rest of the games in no particular order. Now that we've gotten through the rookie quarterbacks, let's go to Cincinnati, Tampa, because they did play Joe Burrow in this game. I always appreciate the coaches that play the starters. Now, some of I think the Bills might be like this this year. They like doing it in the first week because they got joint practices coming up, and they would rather just do it further away from the season. This might be the only couple of the series that we see of Joe Burrow, but we saw Joe Burrow, and he looked good.

Yeah. I mean, look, he had an abbreviated season last year. It's been a long time since he's played competitive full-speed football. If you're going to get it out of the way, you get it out of the way now. We know who he is. All he has to do is stay healthy. It's good to see him out there. I'm glad he's That's not the statu-esque guy he was last year in the first month of the season because that was just sad. Good call.

Yeah, he rolled out. The best throw he made was not caught. He threw it into double coverage about 50 yards down the field while he was rolling out. It was like he just put it on a platter to Tee Higgins. I was like, Man, this guy is so talented. Just with his accuracy, he's just maybe the most accurate quarterback in the league. Tee Higgins leaped up for it, had it in his hands, and it was knocked out at the last second by the cornerback. So it was just good football. It was good football by everyone. No one made a bad play there. I did notice Higgins got a target on almost every other snap. He was in the game, made a bunch of catches. I think it was Joe Burrow saying, Hey, man, let's get back on this same page and let's get you some confidence. And so he made some nice catches to keep that drive going. I noticed Andre Yoshavas, who we've been talking about a lot each week, made a big third down conversion in that game to keep that drive going. And yeah, Amarius Mims, their right tackle, first-round starter. I think he's going to be a week-one starter and looked pretty good out there against backups, against the Bucks.

But he's been a big story in Wengel's camp, too.

Jermaine Burton, three catches, 82 yards and a countdown. Hey, I know we're all team Yoshavas here, but maybe there's some sneaky depth in this receiving core.

Okay, so he looked incredibly athletic late in the game, just torching these undrafted third stringers. That's one of those things in preseason where I've learned over the years. Is it good that he's torching the third stringers, or is it a bad sign that he's out there at the very end of the game? I don't think it's a bad sign. He's obviously making the team and can have a role eventually and showed them, Hey, you got to figure out a role for this guy. But it does show me he's further down the depth chart right now, certainly than Yoshavas, because Burrow had been out of the game for two quarters by the time Burton came in. Then again, he freaking haust these guys like a guy from Alabama.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. That's the Bama product right there. I trust he'll be ready and he'll find a way to make it.

He might be just a slow builder. Not much from the Bucks. They did play their first round pick, Graham Barton. I watched the cut up of him making a lot of nice blocks, and they were good in the running game. Bucky Irving, their rookie running back, had some nice runs. All their young, skilled position guys, which I think this team has to be a little deeper, skilled position-wise, than people realize. Jalen McMillan, Trey Palmer, they all made some plays. Let's talk about a game that happened on Sunday, Rams, Cowboys. I'm going to watch as many of these Rams preseason games as I can just because I just love listening to our good friend, Andrew Siciliano, along with our good friend, Mina Kimes, and someone I don't know personally, Andrew Whitworth in the booth. Let's listen to the most electric moment of the weekend. Take it away, Andrew. Fourth and goal to tie the game.

This is it.

Stetson Bennett. Oh, you got the token. Rolling out to the left. Bennett slings it back in the end zone. Touchdown.

All right, playmaker. Miller, forestall.

And we are tied with four seconds to go. I love it. I love Mina getting into a radio call on the show. She's going to be back on NFL Daily, by the way, next week, and I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, that was a great redemption moment for Stetson Bennett, who threw four interceptions in this game, and it was down 12:06 when they got the ball late and delivered the only countdown drive. That was actually a pretty sweet play. Fourth down, rolling to his left, sidearming it, right-handed for the countdown. That's the preseason for you, moments like that.

It's fun to see a guy like Stetson Bennett who was basically not with the team last year, now in preseason and making a play. Yeah, he threw four picks, but it's still fun to see him back in uniform on a field making a play.

Yeah, he threw four picks is a big problem. I did watch a decent amount of this game, and other than the four picks, I thought he looked much better than last preseason where he looked loff. Then again, he threw four picks.

Can we also talk about how Trey Lance threw 41 passes in a preseason game?

Okay, yeah. Can we talk about Trey Lance? I'll start with a I've never seen him run any better. I don't know if he's lost weight or is just... Not that he was ever overweight, but he just was incredibly explosive as a runner. I was just like, wow. I know he's always been a good runner, but this seemed next level. But yeah, those 40, what was it? 41 throws only resulted in 188 yards. So that's not what you want.

No, not great, Greg. He looks springy when he's running, and everybody wants to ride that story because what happens with Doug, and they got Trey Lance for basically nothing, but it's still Trey Lance. It's still... It is what it is.

Here's the problem is they wanted him to be their backup this year, and he's not going to be Cooper Rush is going to be their backup. Cooper Rush made the best play of this entire game. Really, the best NFL play I saw the whole... Well, the last touch-sound was pretty sweet, but he hit Jalen Brooks for 43 yards early on a total dime. I will mention Chuma Adoga, who is their left tackle, projected starting left tackle for the season, left with an injury that sounded like it was at least somewhat serious that he's going to be out at least a week or more. And so that's going to give their first round pick, Tyler Guyton, a chance to be their starting left tackle. Jordan Wittenham is a camp guy for the Rams that looks a lot like Pukina Kua body-type-wise. And they've said all off All summer has just been lighting it up, and he went 6 for 74 in this game and had another long catch overturned by a penalty. So they know how to pick wide receivers, and I think at least he's going to be a good depth pick for them. And then just a little note So Neshawn Wright, who was taken in the third round a couple of years ago, was traded for Andrew Booth, the Vikings, who was taken in the second round a couple of years ago.

So a trade of guys who weren't really working out for their-Second straight year in which the Cowboys traded a corner for a cornerback in August.

They did it last year if you got through Melifon as well.

No, it was Calvin Joseph.

Calvin Joseph, yeah, right?

No, Igbenogany.

Igbenogany, that's not Melifon. He's not going to be. Long last names. Then he returns the blocked field goal for a shutdown in week one against the Giants, and that was the highlight of his year. That time, it was a first rounder. They'd trade a second rounder for a first rounder former, and then this year was, what, Third rounder for a second former second rounder.

Yeah, and probably these guys aren't... If they make the team, they're going to be the last cornerback. So we don't need to spend too much time on that. I do want to say, though, that Jerry, watching Lance, his contract runs out at the same time as Dax. Jerry Jones basically told everyone he made that trade on his own without telling anyone, more or less. He just wanted to do it. A year ago, he was like, We didn't tell anyone. We didn't even tell Mike McCarthy. And it was just like, he just He wanted to do it. My son, who's back from Japan and has jet lag, we were watching last night this show. He just watches anything football. He doesn't care. The show The Pick is In, which is on Roku, which I've never seen before. It was actually pretty good. This was the 2023 draft process. They had pretty good inside the room of the Cowboys draft room. It was just so clear that Jerry Jones is just doing whatever he wants. Then everyone else is just making up arguments to support him. I just don't know if that's... He's like, Hey, this Mazy Smith, this seems like a good idea.

Then everyone's jumping in to support. They're like, Yeah, it is a good idea.

Yeah. No, it's not the best way to operate in today's NFL. But then again, he is an owner and he's the boss.

He is. We're going to take one last quick break, and then we're going to wrap up the final few games, preseason, week one.

You still got six games left, Nicky.

We got to crank.

It's a good thing we just went and pulled some music from the vault out in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, NFL Films.

Seahawks Chargers might be the game of the week that I have the least to say about. The only thing my biggest takeaway was, it was cool. Jim Harbaugh had a full back in on the first two plays. It was like, Hey, this is what we're going to be. And they used them in creative ways. It was like, Hey, this is what we're going to be. They also did not move the ball. They did not have a first down, nick, until their seventh possession. That's not good.

I mean, the quarterbacks that played Easton Stick, Max Dugan, if you look at that on paper, that explains everything to me. It's preseason week one, and we're putting a fullback out there. We're working out the kinks, all right?

We're Joe Alt was out there, and Joe Alt, I think, played pretty well. There was one pass rush where Nuoosu pushed him. I was watching. Other than that, I don't think he gave up a pressure, but otherwise, it's ugly. I think Harbaugh might start panicking over the Easton Stick This is our backup quarterback thing. Sooner than later, Easton Stick had 31 yards in an interception on 13 attempts. The Seahawks played their starters for a couple of drives, and they gave up a total of seven yards. So that's good. I mean, they feel good about it. Byron Murphy had a couple nice flashes. And then I just noticed the Chargers practice reports lately. Harbaugh said Bosa is likely to be back for week one, but there's some question there. Junior Wilson, who they thought would start at linebacker as a rookie, basically has in practice still. Gus Edwards is back in and out of practice. Lad McConkey has been in and out of practice.

Yeah, that's concerning. You want to be about as healthy as possible. They're going to count on a guy like Lad McConkey and the fact that he's been in and out of practice. I mean, unless Quentin Johnson lives up to his billing.

Daniel Popper of the Athletic was going through the wide receiver battle, and he was making clear he wasn't sure if Quentin Johnson was even wide receiver for. Yeah. He was like, he might not make the team necessarily, or they would trade him, I think. But there's a battle there, but all bad. Not a lot of CX starters played there either, but they showed some creative looks on offense. Actually, some blocking schemes, and they were doing some things with grubs. So they're just someone to watch. I'm excited about the Seahawks. Titans 49ers played big time win for the Titans 17, 13. We haven't even been giving scores because they don't matter. Here's what you need to know about the 49ers. Niners. 23 players of their team missed their recent practice because of injuries or because they're holding out in the case of Brandon Iuk and Tread Williams. That's so many players that they actually cancel their joint practice with the Saints this week because they're like, We're missing too many players. We don't even want to do a joint practice. Or maybe they just didn't feel like it and changed their mind. I don't really know, but that's what they said.

That is a lot of players. That's a lot to deal with. You're missing three players, so they're not coming down. Ricky Pearsall is the one that catches my attention most because he wasn't healthy in the offseason. Then he wasn't healthy coming into camp with a different injury. Then he plays for four days, and then he gets hurt again with the old injury from OTAs. It, to me, puts a different light on the whole Brandon Ayouk situation because Ricky Pearsall is their first-round pick who plays wide receiver.

Yeah, I don't think that those two things can operate exclusively. I think they're interdependent on each other. The longer that he is not on the field, the more the Niners are like, Hang on to Iyuk and try and work something out because if we don't have him, it's not like he is Iyuk, but we're talking about numbers and talent on a depth chart. If you get rid of Brandon Ayuk, you got to have somebody else to slot in there unless you get a receiver back in a trade. But we're also going on week three of, Is he going to get traded? Is he not going to get traded? We just continued to ride until it's all sorted out. By the way, Greg, I don't know if we've had a joint practice or any two-team activity, not on a game field, canceled since COVID. I have to wonder, how do the Saints feel when they get stood up on their date?

They're annoyed. They're annoyed. They gave them four days notice, which was canceling a dinner reservation or whatever, a haircut. You're not going to pay the fee because it's far enough out, I guess. But I'm sure they're a little annoyed, the Saints, and maybe they're going to have to change their practice schedule. Maybe the 49ers were just like, There's not enough juice down there. There's no fans in Irvine. Irvine was weird. It's a weird environment. It's a weird environment.

It's very strange.

I was down there and it just was... They were practicing. That part was normal, but it was just like being in a library.

You're on a campus. It looks very higher ed around you. It does not feel like a football environment.

Right. The Raiders only had 300 fans because they only could bring season ticket. Those 300 fans were louder than half the camps out there. The music was blaring. It was great. We do have more on Ayuk, and Titans will give you a quick note or two. Since we've last taped, Tom Pelacero at NFL Network reported that the 49ers have reengaged contract talks with Brandon Ayuk, and there is an increasing chance that Ayuk signs with them. I just defer to Brandon Ayuk here, and he just keeps putting out on Instagram, Stop just putting all this stuff out in the media and make a decision. He literally went into the comments of one of these reports and said that. He said what I was thinking, too. What What is this public facing back and forth? Why is it necessary? I get that you're negotiating, but you don't need to leak everything and just make a decision at this point, because it's pretty clear, Ayuk is not interested in going to the Browns. It's pretty clear that the Steelers, according to reports, are not interested in paying enough in a trade for Ayuk. There was a report that they just wanted seconds and thirds, and the Steelers weren't...

Now, we don't know how many exactly, but they weren't even asking for a first, and the Steelers weren't even meeting their price on that. So just pay the man. I guess that's my take.

Yeah, it's all about trying to control the narrative outside when you're leaking stuff like this. And honestly, I got tired of this a week ago. Guys, figure it out. It's not that hard. I mean, it's hard, but it's not that hard.

My read of the situation is they would trade him to a team that's giving up enough in compensation. And the Browns, reportedly, were giving up Cooper a second and a fifth. Cooper then sends an Instagram out a story that said, I wouldn't mind that one bit. Now, he didn't say what it was about, and he didn't talk to the media after the game, so he can have some deniability that's like, I was talking about something else, but it's like, We know what you were talking about. I mean, I wouldn't mind it either. No offense to your Browns. The 49ers are contending for Super Bowl every year, and they are the number one offense in the league, and the Browns are very much not the number one offense.

Yeah, I had friends text me panicking as soon as that became public, and I said, Could you blame him? I'd want to go play for the 49ers if I was Amari Cooper as well.

It's that simple. He's not going to, though. It seems pretty clear to me that Ayuk doesn't want to play for Cleveland. He obviously didn't want to play for New England, and I think they're going to get the deal done in the end, maybe because Pierre Saul can't get healthy. My biggest takeaway from the Titans in this game was just, Will Levis needs to protect himself. He tried to run over a linebacker at the goal line again and took a huge shot. And because he's Will Levis and he's incredibly strong, he's very like Cam Newton-y to me. He bounced off it and was fine, but that's how he plays, and I don't know. I don't know if you can keep playing that way.

That's not who he is. He is a bull in a China shop. He's a guy who has a chip on his shoulder. He's a guy who's out there to prove a and usually it's done physically. This is the same guy that went to the combine and bragged about how live his arm was, and he does have a strong arm. Oh, he does. But he's not going to back down, and that's usually not good for the longevity in a career.

You know what else I learned from that or remembered from that show The Pick is in was how the consensus last year, I couldn't believe this, before the draft was that Levis was going to the Texans. I forgot that. I memoryhold that as C. J. Stroud was predictably going there. And that was only the case At least once you got to three hours or two hours before the draft. Before that, no one knew that. It's crazy how wrong that was. I will support my friend Justin Graver, the Gravedigger, in his assessment that this is the best running back duo in the league. Tony Pollard looked really good in this game, had some juice, which was nice to see because he definitely did not have as much juice as we were used to last year with Dallas. Then Tajay Spears didn't have many big plays, but great TD run showing just his great ability to stop and start. I do like that running back duo. Jags, Chiefs. We got Trevor Lawrence versus Patrick Mahomes. This was like a playoff game as it goes for the preseason. Now, they were out by the end of the first quarter, but you can't ask for much more than that.

I mean, it's a good reason to watch. The people that got to the stadium on time and paid their preseason ticket prices, they got a little bit of a show, at least for a quarter. This is like a playoff game. I'm not going to stop laughing at that in my head for a while now.

I mean, it It was just like it was two real quarterbacks looking like real quarterbacks. Mahomes' drive was fine. Suah Matea continues to be their left tackle. He's going to be their guy. The big takeaway from this game was Marquise Brown got hurt, and you hate to see that. He had a clavicle shoulder injury that I'm going to stumble over how you say it, but he's out 4-6 weeks. That's not official from the team, but Tyree Kehl had almost the exact same injury, and that was how long he was out for. It was four games when he had it. Some of the Twitter doctors and stuff say that's about the timeline. That puts Marquise Brown's availability for that opener in doubt, which is disappointing. He's going to be a big part of their offense.

Yeah. Fun fact about that injury, according to NFL Network insider Ian Rappaport in his report on NFL Network today, usually associated with car crash injuries, not football injuries.

I mean, that's what these guys do, 17 weeks a year. Car crashes. The biggest takeaway of standing on the sidelines of NFL games other than... Obviously, it's very fast, faster than you can imagine. Then number two, I'm amazed, officials get anything right, and I have way more tolerance for them after being on the field. I was just like, How do they get anything right? This is impossible.

Or stay healthy enough to officiate all season.

The third thing is, I can't believe there aren't more injuries all the time. Everyone just isn't always hurt. It seems insane. Let's go a couple of more games. Eagles, Ravens, not a lot here. Tana McKee, Let me pick it. I did like how Nate Wiggens looked in this game, the cornerback for the Ravens. He then left with a shoulder injury that he got diving on a tackle. John Harbaugh did say that his injury and Rashaad Bateman's injury, which kept him out the game, are believed to be pretty minor. So that's a good sign. Before that, he looked incredible, the rookie corner, Nate Wiggens.

This is the two sides of the coin with Nate Wiggens that I've held since the combine. The guy is incredibly fast, incredibly athletic, and was very productive at Clemson, right? And he is a natural cover corner. There was a sequence where Kenny Picket went after him like three or four straight plays early in this game. He's a little grabby on the first one, but he bats it down. Second one, he basically blocks it with his lower back because he just shielded off the receiver and pick it under through it. And then the third one was a legit good pass breakup. I'm like, There it is. There's the product. You got this guy at the end of the first round. Ravens fans are all fired up, but then he gets hurt. And he actually had a couple more nice plays before he went out of that game. The reason that I even bring up the injury, beyond the fact that it's probably day to day, whatever, is the fact that when I watched this tape and I looked at his build, I'm like, Man, he's super athletic, but he's wiry.He's a little slightly.He's.

So slight.

It's almost like you need to put some weight on to be able to play a full NFL season, and it's already popped up. So hoping for the best, hoping it doesn't become a consistent thing, but that's the two sides of that there.

Yeah, they've had a lot of injuries. Kyle Hamilton left Sunday's practice with a knee injury, but initially, they think they dodged a bullet, but they were sending him for more tests. So we're taping this Sunday night, and so we just don't know. That, obviously, is something to watch. Arthur Mallet, who had a role in their secondary, is going to miss the beginning of the season. So we've had some injuries. Really rack up. Eagles didn't play many starters. Weren't any huge takeaways for me.I.

Have one takeaway.Please. I'm very concerned about the long-term future of Kenny Pickett. I know the statistics say he was okay. I'm not panicking, but he has not gotten any better. He's still the same guy. In a game against a lot of backups in Baltimore defense led by a new defensive coordinator, Zack Orr, I was underwhelmed.

Not a lot of confidence. Sometimes you can see it with when they're just not playing with any confidence, not sure of himself. And yeah, I mentioned Tana McKee, that there's a battle there, I guess, for the backup quarterback job. My guess is they keep both those guys. They're not going to cut Kenny Picket anyways, but Picket's probably even bad enough that they want to have McKee there. They might like him better. We don't know. Steelers, Texans. I'm a little worried about the Steelers' tackles. That was my big takeaway in this game. So Fao Tanu, who is their first-round pick, gave up a sack and a half and then left with an injury and is out at least a week. Broderick Jones, who was their first round pick a year ago, had three pressures in this game, played a lot, played deep, switching sides back and forth. It's a little unsettled when that's supposed to be the identity of their team.

And the crown jewel of their offseason, which is that, Look, we invest in the offensive line. We should be good to go. But this is the risk you run anytime you depend on rookies or young guys to play key positions in the offensive line. It'll pop up in the preseason if they just don't have the experience. Roger Jones worked his way into the lineup last year. It's not like he got a full season of experience. He got two other rookies in that offensive line. This is going to be a problem until it's not anymore. It's just, Can it be solved before it actually affects them significantly?

Right. And there were two botch snaps from their new center, Herbig, who was there a year ago, but now he's playing center. They also drafted a rookie, Frazier at center. So we'll see just a lot going on there. Justin Fields had good numbers. Tomlin downplayed it because the two botch snaps, he said, was partly on the quarterback's too. But I don't know. It seemed like watching it looked more like this was on the center. Najee Harris looked like he had a little juice. There's been a lot of best shape of my life buzz on Najee Harris, and he did look pretty good in this game, so that's something to watch. Then just watching an NFL team roll out Calvin Austin and Van Jefferson as your wide receiver two and three, Pittsburgh. You're not giving up a second and third for Ayuk, really?

If I had hair, I'd pull it out.

Joe Mixon was back at practice for the Texans on Sunday, so that's a good sign. Christian Harris, who's a really key linebacker for them, also back at practice for the first time, I believe, all camp, and then immediately left. I don't know if it was the same injury, but that's a bad sign for them. Dineo Hunter had a sack in this game. Stroud and Tankdell just had a beautiful breakdown. That just made me not... I can't wait to them in the regular season. And then one thing I will note about the Steelers, they came back to practice on Sunday, and Justin Fields is still taking first-team reps. Not all of them. I guess Russell Wilson is still getting some of them. That's something. And then, nick, on top of that, the team sent out a celebratory photo. The annual Home run derby was won by Justin Fields.

No, no.

Wasn't Russell Wilson drafted in Major League Base? Justin Fields is out there winning the The Home run Derby?

He's a supreme athlete, but... Oh, no, we're reading the tea leaves already.I can't wait for week eight.I.

Mean, I am. That's an athlete right there because there's some professional ball players, and Fields goes out there and wins the Home run Derby. I give him some credit. Supposedly in the situation, all the red zone drills and stuff, he was out playing Russell Wilson. It's like, if this wasn't a battle before, it's obviously a battle right now.

I'm curious if they actually let it get that serious.

They're going to let Russell Wilson play. They said Russell Wilson will probably play in this game, so it's something to watch.

Does this level off? Does all the excitement taper off and they return to business as usual with Russell Wilson as QB1?

Maybe, but the leash is going to be so much shorter.

Yeah, does it run long enough that it actually does? Because we're almost there right now.

Does it run long enough? I think at this point, it's very fair to say Justin Fields has a realistic chance to start week one. Now, is that 20%? Is it 40%? I wouldn't give it over 50/50 yet, but if Russell Wilson doesn't look great in practice and doesn't look 100%, Then, yeah, it's going to happen. Last game is the game I have virtually no notes for. It's your Cleveland Browns. Good. And the packers. I went to this game. Dtr, preseason DTR is back. Dontavian Wix, I love him, had a long countdown. I did think that the couple of young packers, recent draft picks, Devante, Wyatt, Lucas Van Ness, they had some flashes. And so that's about all I have for you from the packers and Browns game.

Curious to see what type of jump Van Ness is capable of making. He's a hulking edge guy, came from Iowa, and didn't see a whole lot from him last year. But that's something that I'd like to track. I'll tell you what, Greg, you and I talked about this, I think, off on the side, Sean Clifford versus Michael Pratt. Sean Clifford looked really good. He looked in He was a man to that offense. He looked comfortable. He used his athleticism. He rolled out. He delivered on target passes all over the field. It almost felt like they were playing the junior squad for the Browns or something, like the JV team, because that's how well he was playing.

I got to admit, I have not got to this game. I'm trying to get my eyes on all these games, but I did check the PFF grades because I'm a sicko to see if Pratt... And they had Pratt out playing.

Yeah, well, Pratt got less time. Clifford played into the third quarter, and I'm sitting there at the game going, Can I see Michael Pratt already, please? This is why I'm here.

You went. What was the scene like? How was it? A little preseason Browns action. They had power.

They had a typical preseason Browns. They did. All of downtown had power the whole time, luckily for them, because they had a bunch of sports going on in the city this week. But yeah, no, it was the Savannah bananas were in progressive field during this game. So it was a very busy downtown. But typical preseason action, beautiful day of weather. The Browns couldn't do much offensively. Not surprised. It is the preseason.

Yeah. And look, we're trying to get into regular season for them. We're going to do this Every Monday morning, you'll have it in your feed. There's three preseason weeks. Some weeks, next week, there'll be even, I think, more take, more to sink your teeth into. Week three, we'll keep it quick and just go around the league of what's going on because there'll probably be a little less. But it was fun having actual football with officials and uniforms and all that fun stuff. So we'll be doing that. Nick at night. Once the season gets going, you're with me on Sunday nights. You're with me on Monday nights. I'm looking forward to it, buddy. Thanks again.

Burn it into your brains. Get used to it. It's not going anywhere.

All right. For nick Shook. For all 14 of those games, we'll be back on Tuesday with Jordan Rodríguez, Steve Weiss. We're doing a new fun segment called Check this one out. It's going to be good. Until then.