Welcome to NFL Daily, where we are officially in football shape. I'm Greg Rosenthal, and beyond lucky today to be joined by my friend, nick Shuck. Chucky, we have 15 preseason games, 30 teams to talk about, and we're almost done with the preseason. I'm excited for this one.

Let's go. I actually had I just wanted to remind myself that week 2 is the important week in preseason this week because it used to be week 3 back in the day when we had four preseason games. I'm sitting there watching some of these games last night going, Oh, man, the whole Bill starting defense is out there for a considerable amount of time. Oh, yeah, week 2 does matter. So we do have some good things to talk about.

It lets me real, though. It used to be every team having the same playbook, and now it's different. Some teams take week 1 seriously. A couple of teams are going to throw some starters out there in week 3. I think the Titans on that bandwagon. The Jets might be. We'll see. But it's a grab bag. And half of these games, not a lot happened. And so what we're going to do is go through all the preseason stuff that did matter. We're going to hit all 15 games. But for the games where it was backups playing, we'll also hit news from those teams. And so you can feel up to date with 30 teams in the league. Sorry, Eagles and Patriots, you got your treatment on Friday show. Although we have heard that Drake Bay is practicing since that performance that he's eased up. He's got confidence. So there's some patriots for you. You look surprised, Shook.

I mean, I just like to hear a rookie quarterback gaining confidence, especially a rookie quarterback that has drawn the consternation of the media symbol that covers them. So good for him. Yes.

It is a trend that these rookies who the first couple of weeks of training camp seem like they're struggling. Ad Mitchell is another one we'll get to with the Colts that towards the end of training camp, in the middle of preseason, they get their legs underneath them. They get the confidence that they belong at this level. We belong at this level, Shook. When I said football shape, I just mean it. I'm ready to go. This is the seventh week of NFL Daily. We love everyone that has been with us every day on this journey. With this week of the preseason now wrapped up, I just feel like it's time. The season could start tomorrow, and it would not be soon enough. But let's get to some of the fun stuff. Because it's the last item of news that happened, I want to start with with Raiders and Cowboys from Saturday night because of the news that came out on Sunday that Garner Minchou will be the week one starter of the Raiders. I got to say, nick, this is the worst game in NFL history by a quarterback, I think that ever clinched a starting job.

Garner Minchou. He played so bad in this game, and that was enough to win the starting job. I hate to start so negative, but it really stands out to me.

Yeah, I had the assignment of covering this game, which By the way, thank you to the schedule makers, the preseason schedule makers who decided that 10:00 PM kick, 10:00 PM Eastern would be ideal. Really stuck it to me on that one. But sitting back watching this game, and I'm just thinking, My God, if anything, I'm losing confidence in Garner Minch's viability as a starter in this offense. I know that the Luke Getze offense frustrated a lot of people in Chicago. I know it's preseason. It's going to be fairly vanilla and everything else, but there was no flow. He did not seem comfortable. It was either a shot play, a big run, by Zamir White, or nothing in between, missing guys, not looking comfortable. I was sitting there just thinking, There's no way he's clenched this job. In fact, play them into week three because I need to see more. Then Aiden O'Kunal went out there and threw a pick six in the second half, and that just blew everything up.

Yes. When I went back and watched the game, or at least their dropbacks, that pick six, I was like, Oh, well, that's the moment where this quarterback competition ended because O'Kunal, I was at the practice. I've talked to people who have been there has not looked comfortable in this offense at all. He's been very hesitant. At least, Minchou, you know what you're getting. But yeah, it was tough for Antonio pierce coming out of this game to have to announce that Minchou was the guy because he was sick. He didn't want it to go another week. He wants to be sure. He wants to prep that guy for week one against the chargers. But like I said, the worst game that's ever clenched his starting job in the history of QB battles. Minchou, under 50% completion. Minchou, five drives for three points in this game, under five yards per attempt. And the tape was just as bad as the numbers, just not pulling the trigger. There was a couple of times I saw open receivers on the all-22, and he just plays. It's just vibes, baby, with Minchou. It's just running around and making some plays.

And a couple of times he'll make some. But it did make me think like, Yeah, it looked okay in the Shane Steiken offense for a while last year, but it might look a little different in a Raider's offense. But he's at least played a A lot in the NFL. He's been a week one starter before, and I think this was just more about Aiden O'Neill losing this job, and you could hear it. Antonio pierce, they might have announced that Minchou had the job on Sunday, but pierce sounded different on Saturday after the game. Was It ended well for both of you gentlemen, right? And it just didn't. And we'll look at it, we'll evaluate.

They both had opportunities. Aiden had 20 attempts, and Minchou had 21. So buy this balance as we can get it, and we'll look at it. Obviously, you saw what our plan was, and I throw the ball around, let these guys showcase That's what they can do, and we'll talk about it. It's not good. It's not good. Here's the thing, Greg. When you put that pressure on two guys in week two of a preseason game and nobody's really separated themselves, you're setting your sofa failure when you're dealing with Garner, Minchou, and Aiden O'Neill. And that's essentially what we got. And then you add in the mix that maybe this offense isn't really hitting a rhythm yet with Luke Getzey, who's a new OC in Vegas. And this is the product that you get. I feel bad for AP because now he's the permanent head coach. He's not just the interim head coach. And you can hear the frustration and really just, well, this is what we got. By default, Garner Minchou is our starter. We'll go check it out. But they both had an opportunity and neither really seized it. We'll go with the more experienced guy.

Right. I will always believe that they wanted Michael Penix. It didn't happen. O'neill has just been frantic, and he said, Why are you spending so much time on the Raiders to start to show the Raiders aren't relevant? Hey, the Raiders are one of the most popular teams in the NFL, and all these teams are relevant before week one. That's why I love them. Everyone's a beautiful baby that you just don't know the season is going to go. A couple of other notes from this game and these two teams. Tyree Wilson, the top 10 pick of the Raiders from a year ago who just reportedly has not shown much at training camp, just looks like a guy. I'm going to talk about some players that could change teams or free agents on our next show with Jordan Rodrieg. Tyree Wilson is one I could see just getting dealt for a seventh-round pick or something just because it's not working. And then for the Cowboys, they played all their backups. I wanted to point that out, that these were the Raiders' starters versus the Cowboys backups, and it still was going this poorly. But the big news this week, to me with the Cowboys, was they've elevated two rookies to the starting lineup on the offensive line.

One, by necessity because of injury, that's Tyler Gaiton. But again, he looked good in this game. He's a talented kid. He's going to be out there week one against the Browns and Miles Garrett. So that's fascinating. And then Cooper Beebe, a rookie guard center, is playing center for them now. So it does look like they've pushed these two rookies into the starting lineup. And And that's exciting. We'll see if they hit it. But they also have a rookie edge named Marsha Neillan, who's made some good plays, too, in run defense. So the youth movement in Dallas.

I would also like to give a tip of the cap to Trey Lancer, putting on a better show in week two than he did in week one. Picked up some yards with his feet, put together a couple of nice drives, looked a little more confident. Still a little haywire from here to there. Every once in a while, hit the throw, you don't know where it's going. It's not like he's going to compete for a starting job, but it's fine. He looked better than he did before, so that's good.

Honestly, that's great because it felt pretty dark at the end of last week in Dallas. He started wondering, is he even going to be on this team for sure? I know they'd like to develop at least him through another season. I have to mention, I know it doesn't matter. It's the preseason, but it mattered to Brandon Aubrey that he hit a 66-yarder in this game. Let's listen to the call because I thought this was wasted on the preseason, but got to say the Cowboys enjoyed the hell out of this one. This is officially He's got a 66-yard field goal. He drills it, doesn't have enough. Oh, man, 66 for Aubrey. This is the end of the first half. Holy cow. That is awesome. If you watch us on YouTube, you can see all these highlights. Please do like, subscribe. Even if you're just audio people, you're old like me, just go to the YouTube and like it and subscribe it and help Shook and myself out here. But I love how much they celebrated that. 66 yards. He might be coming for Tucker's Crown, not just the record, because that would have tied it. It was a regular season.

But maybe the title of the best kicker in the league, who knows?

Look, that would have been good from 69, maybe 70, maybe 70. It was the most electric moment of the preseason, in my opinion. I just happened to glance over as I was writing my notes off of the whole Minchou O'Neill disaster. I'm like, Is he spotted behind the midfield logo? And then he kicks it. I'm like, Oh, my God. And I check the stats. I'm like, That's good from 66. That's why I tweeted in all caps, A kicker just made a 66-yard field goal. I know it's in a dome in preseason, but Let's celebrate this, even if it doesn't matter the record book.

Mike McCarthy was celebrating it. He was loving it. Let's move on to our next game. We can't spend that much time on each game here, Shucker. We'll be here for two hours. Let's go to Washington, Miami. It's take two for in Daniels. I did go back and watch all of his dropbacks. What you get with him was just calm and poised. He had two long field goal drives, nothing fancy, but a lot of throws to the outside. He's just so comfortable even going to a second, third read to the outside. I know they were mostly short throws, but he just looks like that dude. He's just one of the stories to me of the last month of just everyone who's watched Daniels at practice, everyone that was at the Dolphins Washington joint practice, said how well he did, too. He's had a level of comfort, frankly, that I think exceeds, at least on the practice field and in a way in the preseason, any of the other rookie quarterbacks. I don't know I don't know how much that means, but I think it's a good thing if you're a Commander's fan.

I mean, it justifies what he did at LSU in winning the Heisman Trophy. He traveled a long road just to get to the NFL. He was at two different schools. He had a ton of playing experience in college, and it's showing right now, not to mention the athletic gifts that he has. They translate to the modern game of football. This is the type of quarterback that a lot of teams seek. I think Washington's got one. As long as he can stay healthy and they can protect him and surround him with an offense that will insulate him properly with talent and not putting too much on his shoulders, then I think they're in a great spot. It's really encouraging to see a kid like that step into a preseason environment and handle it with poise. I haven't seen a quarterback, and this is going to sound like I'm making a crazy comparison, but I haven't seen a quarterback handle live bullets like that that comfortably since Joe Burrow did when he was a rookie with the Bayes. So very good start for him.

Well, I will point out it's a limited sample size, but he has not played as much as the others. He's played, what, three drives? They were all good drives, though.

Thinking of which, there's a quick note on preseason games and how many guys can get on the field. 19 different commanders were targeted at least once in the passing game, in that game.

That's wild. The funniest moment, you said Daniels has to stay healthy, but the best moment in that game to me was when he did not slide and get down quick enough on one of his runs, and he He took a hit. It wasn't a massive hit like some of the ones he took in the SEC, but he took a hit, and he was on the sideline, and he immediately turned to Dan Quinn, who was right there and started apologizing. Now, after the game, we heard from Dan Quinn and Daniels that he probably turned because Daniels was barking at him, upset about him not getting down, and they laughed about it. But Daniels has reportedly been put on double secret probation from Dan Quinn, which is an animal house reference. He's definitely like your uncle, Dan Quinn. He's made a Top Gun and animal house reference in Back to Back Weeks, which I like.

Well, it fits the way he looks. Bold guy, got that goatee going. It fits.

Okay. One thing to Keep an eye on with Washington, Jehan Dotson. Seems like he's really battling for the second receiver job, maybe the third. That's something to watch as a potential trade. I listened to Ben Standings' podcast, and he said there's just been something a little off with Dotson all off-season, how last year ended, new coaching staff. So that's just something to watch. And then for the Dolphins, a couple of good signs this week. Tua looked great in his one drive. No surprise, but he looks like Tua, which is cool to see. He comes out five for five. Jalen Phillips came off the pup list this week, and it wasn't one of those like, Hey, I'm going to do some individuals and slowly ramp up. He was practicing a lot. That's huge for them if he can actually contribute in week one. Then O Still not practicing, still on the pup list. I just like mentioning this because I keep seeing people insert Oujay. It's like, Oh, this three receiver set in Oujay. It's like, I don't know. Is he going to be a factor on this team? If you gave me over under 500 yards, I would say under because I just don't expect them to necessarily play football that consistently.

It just hasn't happened enough.

It's going to open an opportunity for a guy by the name of River Craycraft, who made a nice play in this game.

Yes, that was a beautiful throw and catch, especially the catch by Craycraft on the countdown. Braxton Berrios is on this team, fighting for a spot. Who do they have? Washington as a younger receiver. We hit the dolphins a little bit last show, but it's a very exciting offense to look forward to for week one. Nate Tice, our friend, noted just how crazy their shifts are getting and their motions already in the preseason, some of their really short ones with the tight ends. You know Mike's cooking up some stuff in the that the reporters can't quite report on until it starts. So I'm excited to see them. Let's talk a little Jets Panthers. All right. Jets Panthers was a game we don't need to really go over. Backups versus backups. So I will mention just what I read about them this week in the joint practices that everyone who watched them said the Panthers offense actually got it done against the Jets defense. So if you're looking for positives, they're not playing Bryce Young in the preseason, which is a little surprising. Them having a nice day, Terrace Marshall, Jonathan Mingo, having some big gains against the Jets defense, and Young, by all accounts, Jets reporters, Panthers reporters, maybe winning the day if you had to decide, Okay, that's something that wasn't happening last year.

Well, it's good for Mingo, too, because he had a really rough rookie year. He had about as rough a rookie year as Quentin Johnson did. If he can get back on track, that would be a big boost for them. They spent some time revamping their receiving core. They went and got Deontay Johnson in the offseason. But if you can get Mingo to produce alongside Bryce Young with Dave Canales overseeing the whole operation, then they could finally get out of this nightmare that they were in under Frank Wright last year, where they had no direction offensively, no creativity, no chance of really moving the football very often. That would be a huge step forward in the first year of Dave Canales being there, but we'll see.

I know. I'm sorry. I know you've tried to go back and watch as much as this as you can. I went more like notes on some of these because Adrian Martinez and Keesley versus Jack Plumber and Louton. That's peak preseason. I felt like I didn't need to see that.

I had a buddy at the game. He lives in Charlotte, and he goes, I left the Panthers game before I got to see Tino Martinez playing, making a reference to the old baseball player. I go, You mean the former Nebraska Cornhusker? You bite your tongue.

Right. Look, these are all players who are better at playing football than I will be at anything I ever do in my life. But in terms of application to our job, didn't feel as relevant. Tuck McKinley had a moment in this game. He's supposedly going to make the Jets team. He's on the Jets, by the way. Malikai Korely, which I think a lot of people were excited about, third-round pick for the Jets, maybe being their slot guy. He is clearly behind Xavier Gibson on their depth chart. So that's a guy that on draft day, you're like, Oh, yeah, slot him right in. But sounds like he might take a little while to get going. And then Olufashanu, their first-round pick, they're cross-training him at left tackle and right tackle, but that's a good thing. It shows their offensive line is actually healthy right now. He's been a left tackle. That's what he's going to be as a pro, but he's playing a little right tackle right now to be ready in case there's any injury. Those are good things. I think the Jets have had, overall, a really nice training camp and stayed healthy on offense.

Let's get to the other New York team. Texans, Giants. This one was interesting because both starters played, C. J. Stroud versus Daniel Jones. The Giants played their starters the whole first half. What were your takeaways here, nick, from Daniel Jones's first action off an ACL.

Well, it's a little rough. I mean, two interceptions is never something that you're happy about. And this is a year in which the Giants need to produce. They need to be much better than they were last year because of how far they took a step backward last year. It's not a good start, but it's also shaking off some rust. He hasn't played in a long time, and he had a long road of recovery to get back on the football field. So I'm not going to sound the alarm bells yet. But then again, I'm not a Daniel Jones believer. So this It has not surprise me very much at all. And if you look what else they have behind him, we don't need to be back in a Tommy DeVito situation again here.

So hopefully, he gets back on track. Right. Julak is hurt right now and should be back before the start of the season. But right now, yeah, it's Tommy DeVito. This is one where I am glad I went back to watch his drop back because I saw the highlights. I mean, you couldn't have scripted a bigger freaking disaster. To come off in ACL, his first throw goes Right into Derek Stingley, the Houston cornerback's bread basket. Stingley can't bring it down, but it could have been an interception. And he has a screen pass. His next throw, I believe, maybe it was two throws later, is just one of the worst pick sixes you'll ever see. Falling down in the end zone, just can't be thrown. He just throws it up. It's a gift wrap pick six. And then later in the first quarter, he underthrows a deep ball, which was just a bad throw. So he said it afterwards, one bad decision, one bad throw, and that's intercepted, too. This time by Stingley, who might be ready for an all-pro year. It looks awesome. But I did watch the rest of the first half. And granted, It came against the Texans backups, but he had some dimes the rest of the game, actually.

He had a long, nice throw to Darius Slayton, and he had a beautiful out route that everyone noticed how insane the catch, how acrobatic it was from Malik Nabors, and we're going to watch it here. But if you're watching on YouTube, I want you to look at an opposite hash throw, and Daniel Jones had about three of these in this game, and that was a nice ball by Daniel Jones. Jones down the sideline.

Nabors, a leap and grab and a tiptoe to get his feet in.

That's a first down, and that's a tip your cap play.

If you're a Texan, you just tip your cap to a guy. Make it a great play.

You just tip your cap and you see why they talk about Malik Nabors the way they did? That is just a sick sideline. Malik Nabors is so good. He looked so good in this game. But yeah, they protected Daniel Jones in the second quarter, and he was way more aggressive than he had been the last couple of years, which is like the younger Daniel Jones, the one I wanted to see. So considering how completely awful his start was, I actually thought it showed a little something that he came back and spun it like a quarterback should when they're protected that well against backups. But he did it.

Yeah, that's the frustrating thing with Daniel Jones is that he has those flashes, and you see the arm talent, you see the potential. It's just not consistent. But I will say, I don't know what it is about the Texans. They played an extra preseason game because they played the Hall of Fame game. And in the Hall of Fame game, Colin Johnson was making the same catches down the sideline, almost identical to what Malik Nabors did there. So Texans, I don't know what it is about attempts along the boundary, but stop getting mossed. Of course, I'm doing it.

There are some rookies that come in and you want to say, Oh, the preseason doesn't matter. It's like, It matters if Every single practice report says Malik Nabors is dominating everyone across from him and dominating the target share. Then you can just see him pop. You're like, Okay, he pops in the same way on an NFL field like you expect. I'm not saying he's going to have 1,500 yards, but I think he might have a chance to have a Jamar Chase-like rookie here just because of all the targets that he's going to have, and he's so talented. His worst play, and he was killing himself, whereas he didn't come down with an acrobatic catch early from Jones. That was Jones' second pass. But on that play, he dusted Stingley, who's so good. Even that, I was like, That's impressive.

This kid's going to be awesome. Yeah, and the Giants, they haven't had a big-time receiver like this since Odell. If you can actually slot that into their depth chart and count on that, that's a huge step forward from a roster development standpoint, even if everything around them is still pretty fluid.

And watchability. So let's just wait a little bit on Jones. I'm not pushing the panic button. Jalen Petrie was everywhere in this game. It was nice to see C. J. Stroud just play football. It was just all class, all calm. He was good. That was about it. He got a little bit to Stefan Diggs, a little bit to Nico Collins. Everyone got involved in this game.

I've looked at this depth chart in watching these Texans games, and I'm trying to figure out what their receiving room is going to look like. I look at the stats, and I see John Metchie had six catches for 68 yards, and it I've been worried about John Metchie a little bit. I know his career got off to a rough start. Obviously, he had the cancer diagnosis, and it kept him out of football the first year. But it seemed like he's never really gotten back on track, especially with his pedigree where he came from in college. If you look at their top six right now, you're looking at Tankdell, Stefan Diggs, Nico Collins, Robert Woods, Noah Brown, and then John Mechee. Six is like, that's right on the bubble there. But having a game like this could go a long way toward him getting back on track and proving that he deserves a roster spot.

Yeah, I've heard the same thing in Houston, too, because some of their other younger receivers also have been making a push. Maybe Robert Woods or Noah Brown aren't locks for this team. They could be maybe their guys. I'm going to write this down right now because we're doing a show about potential guys that could change. And those are two guys that maybe another The other team throws a conditional sixth for because they want to keep Mechie. But that was a big game for him. You're right, he's been through a lot. Also a huge injury, obviously, that he was coming back from when he got drafted before the leukemia. So it is nice to see he dominated. He had an entire drive all to himself. Micah McFaddon, the Giants' linebacker who is a good player, got carded off in this game. So that is something to watch. Let's wrap with one of the games I think will be more quick before our first break. Let's just do Ravens, foul Hawkins, backups aplenty, no Michael Penix. They said they've seen enough for Michael Penix. Yes. They're just one of those teams that don't want to play guys in the preseason.

The Ravens, the only starters they played, and I thought this was telling, were three of their starters on the offensive line. It looks like they've settled in on Andrew Vorheys, Daniel Follalele, who will be the biggest offensive lineman or guard, I believe, in the history of the sport, and Roger Rosengarden. They were playing, and they haven't maybe stood out. Jeff Zuzerback, I don't know how to say his last name, of the athletic has said that they haven't really played that well in the camp. So that's just something to watch with the Ravens, but it looks like those are your three guys.

Yeah, I'm tracking Vorheys just because he was a guy that came out with a ton of potential out of USC, and then he shredded his knee at the combine and missed his entire rookie year. It felt like a value pick, a long-term play, a David Ajabo type play, and that hasn't really panned out either. But I'm hoping that it does for him just because he had so much potential coming out of college. I would love to see him get back to where he was supposed to be and then ascend from there.

Well, it looks like he's be starting week one for one of the best offenses in the league, so he's got a chance. You mentioned Ajabo. I'm glad you did. Devastating his injury history as a pro. He was a pick that the Ravens had and is coming off another season-ending injury. He played his first snaps in this game in a long time and reportedly looked okay, so he is on the mend. It's settled with me just how sick safety tandem Justin Simmons and Jesse Bates could be. I know Justin Simmons wasn't quite himself in a different system last year, and so we'll see if he's really lost a step. But man, that's a lot of smarts in the back end of this defense here for the Falcons.

I got to give a lot of credit to the Falcons and Terry Fontenoh for acknowledging their weakness or being aggressive in the market. They go make the Matthew Judon trade. They go sign Justin Simmons. They had already gotten Bates a year prior, and he balled out in his first year there. I mean, look, oftentimes, fan to sit back and say, We need to go get that guy, even if it doesn't make sense systematically. It's a good on Terry for going out there and saying, Look, we're going to accrue talent, as much talent as we can to fill the needs that we have.

Yeah, I think there are other teams out there. The Colts stand out where their fans are like, Why didn't we get Justin Simmons? But they didn't. You know what we got to do, Chuck? Let's take a break, and we'll come back, and let's hit Caleb Williams' second preseason effort after the break. Oh, yeah. We're back on NFL Daily. Some of these shows are short, like Friday's show with Silva. Some of these are long, but we're packing it with so much goodness. Chock full.

Chock full of info.

So much information. In this way, you didn't have to watch the preseason if you're out there, at least beyond- Unless you're a sicko like us. Yeah, unless you're... No. I mean, there are plenty of sickos, but preseason is for your own team. Although I have a feeling people were tuning in to check out Caleb Williams. That game was on NFL Network, I believe, live, and he's just must see TV. He did it again. I know it was three straight three and outs to start the game, one or two miss throws and some bad runs from the running game. But then he got going and just had a bunch of sick plays in the last two Which one should we start with Eric behind the glass? How he just bails out of the pocket here. And this is the toughest throw you could do.

Throw him to your left.Away.

From the arm side, right?And.

He does it. That is in the bucket, off platform away from the arm's side. That's the type of stuff at USC that was dropping jaws of scouts across the country.

And he does it effortlessly. And he's done it so many times where it's just not in place. That is absolutely ridiculous. Him rolling to the left, throwing up the left sideline, contorting his body so that his shoulders are square enough to get that ball. But that's just a ball that... I went to a game with Easton Stick and Stetson Bennett this weekend, and they're just playing a different sport. No slight to them, but just to see that ball fly out of the hand and go that far. And it was a nice catch by Aduzze. It just makes you realize what's possible for a quarterback like Caleb Williams.

Yeah, it actually gives a lot of credence to the whole offseason hype machine that has surrounded the bears. Because look, I was in a camp that keep riding with fields and trade the pick and add talent. Well, they said, no, we're going with this guy who's superior. And I've seen it enough through preseason games. He hasn't even played the full game, and I know he'll run into the bumps that rookie's running to, but that stuff right there is special. I'm not saying he's generational. I'm going to avoid that term, but that type of stuff is special and can change your franchise. So to see in the preseason is great.

I will. I I think he did more in college. The games I watched when I went back to what? He did more than anyone I've seen since luck. So whatever you want to call it, it's going to translate. Now, does it translate to being multiple Multiple Pro Bowler. Does it translate to a Philip Rivers level of achievement? Does it translate to all-time great? There's different levels to it, but it's got to translate somewhere on that continuum. It's not going to translate. It's just not. How long and how much can he rely on the improv? Because he is holding the ball a long time. He is. He made some quicker decisions. But look, that was a question people were asking about Aaron Rodgers through the first six or seven years of his careers while he was winning MVPs and having some ups and downs, actually, and having some down stretches, too. So there are different ways to do it. Let's look at a play where Adunzey did not keep his feet in bounds, but this was actually my favorite play by Caleb of the game. It was close to being a touch down. Big run by Herbert.

Now the big pass at seven minutes here in the red zone.

Williams, gone in improud with those feet. Keep the play alive. To the corner of the end zone. Williams to Odunze, but it's ruled incomplete. Oh, my God. Greg, I mean, along the sideline, finds a guy open in the back corner of the end zone. Yeah, his foot was out of bounds, But wow. And that's arm talent right there. Just ripping it down the sideline through the traffic. Beautiful stuff.

I mean, it's just crazy because those are plays that Mahomes pulls off. Just not many people in the history of the game have made plays like that. And just the absolute and utter confidence. And you saw this in the college, you weren't sure how, and we'll see in regular season play, how much it translates. He is not even worried about the first guy coming through tackling him. He's dancing with these pass rushers three feet in front of him and thinking, What am I going to do? Not even thinking, Oh, this guy could actually sack me. He's just making them look bad and then make a throw like that. Yeah, two plays later, if you watched the highlights, you would have seen the ridiculous scramble breakdown that he had. It's just play after play. It's exciting. I'm not crowning him. I don't know what is with Twitter. People are like, Don't enjoy this Caleb Williams thing. Just enjoy It's fun. It's football. This is how I felt watching Patrick Mahomes start playing. I was like, This is going to be great for the next 15 years. I was right.

Yeah, and it's panned out. Now, I'm not going to be a bucket of cold water, but you did make a good note there that he does hold on the ball a little long. I do worry about what that's going to look like when the pressure increases because I don't think this line is going to hold up quite as well in a regular season environment as it has against a vanilla defense in the preseason. It's not that it's processing slow, but the hitching, he's doing a lot of pocket hitching, and I'm worried about what that's going to do. But if he can evade and extend plays like that, we're thinking not only Patrick Mahomes, I'm thinking a little bit of early Russell Wilson and the way that he used to extend plays. Sure.

I like that. And yeah, I'm not expecting it all to be easy. This was against the Bengals' backups. It took a while for their starting group to get going. So that's all worth noting. But the plays are the plays, and there's only so many people that I've ever seen that could make those plays. So you can see it with your eyes. It doesn't matter who it's against. Kyler Gordon was back in this game, just very active for the bears. Keep an eye with all these backups in the game for the bangles, there wasn't a lot to take out of it, but keep an eye on Jamar Chase's situation. It's just been sitting around like, It's about time. This is actually the week that it's about time to fix that. So we'll see. Yoshavash, I've mentioned on the show many times, Andre, he's really locked in as their wide receiver three. And then with Amarias Mims' injury, the spotlight's on Trent Brown. And Trent Brown just has not been a reliable player throughout his career. And just from what we've heard, he has He ended up in on the field at Bangles Training Camp. He finally got back on, then had another injury.

A lot is going to be riding on Trent Brown and Amarias Mims to stay healthy. We'll see if they can. Let's go to the Rams in charges, the game I went to, nick Shook. I got to start with how the game presentation started.I went.I enjoyed the game.Okay. All right. It was fun. Walker and I had fun. He really liked… He still loves it, even though it's the preseason. Like 30 minutes, maybe 15 minutes before the team was going to come out, they had already done their warmups, but they were going to come out for the real warmups the last time. They were like, About 15 minutes till Jim Harba and the Chargers come out. I was like, Okay, well, that's different. I've never heard a team announced that way, but maybe it's just the PA guy just having some fun. It's the first game. Then when they came out onto the field, when they introduced them, they welcomed them as Jim Harba Harbaugh and the Chargers. I don't know why that really got me. It was like Alvin and the Chipminks. I'm the lead singer of the band, Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers. That's how big a deal is.

I like You like how weird it is. Cut to immediately on the big screen at Sofi, it's a letter from Jim Harbaugh to all his players about being in the locker room and what it means to be a charger. In This is a pump-up speech. Sometimes they'll play in games like this, but usually it's not the head coach of the team. It's this long letter written and read by Jim Harbaugh. I'm just thinking, This is weird. This is a lot. This is the cult of personality. But I'm also into it because it's Jim Harbaugh, and it's different, but I like it.

I just think about the Temptations movie. Ain't nobody come to see you, Otis. They're all here to see Jim Harbaugh and him wearing cleats on the field before games. Yes. They needed it, though. They had no identity prior. They didn't, and they needed a change. If they're going to go all in, we'll see what happens.

Maybe it's their PR, like them trying to push the Harbaugh thing. But I tend to think because I just went, How did this all happen? I tend to think it, if I had to just guess, and it's just a guess, that Jim Harbaugh was like, I want it to be said Jim Harbaugh in the Chargers when they call me out.

It's very 2001 Super Bowl, like Patriots get announced as a team, Ram's getting announced individually.

It's the opposite of that.

I love it.

They did show there wasn't a ton in this game. They played their starters, which doesn't include Justin Herbert right now. They set a couple of guys that are banged up, but pretty much played their starters. Very creative with the run game and Joe Alt, double team blocks and the power and the duo, and he's on the move, and they stuck to it. Easton Stick was bad. He is not it. Anytime there was anything positive going, he just threw a a hope ball or he fumbled a snap on the goal line or threw a bad interception. I don't know, man. I don't know how you can go to week one with him as your starter if Justin Herbert doesn't get back. Justin Herbert, watching him during pregame warmups, though, no limp, throwing the ball around. It was him, Harba, and another one of the quarterbacks who were warming up the receiver. Harba's arm is not as strong as what it used to be. A lot more zip on the NFL quarterbacks, but it was decent. Much better than mine would be, but it was hanging up there a little bit.

I think it is telling that they went inside Luis Perez, former NFL and XFL hero.He didn't look really great.He didn't look good. But the fact that they went and grabbed him tells me that they realized, Uh-oh, this might be bad behind Justin. We better hope Justin stays healthy.

Yeah, they're a team to watch, I think, at the quarterback position in the next week. Who could shake loose? I don't know. Tyler Hunt, maybe from Cleveland. That would be better. There's some guys out there that would be better than what they have. They were playing DJ Chark in Quentin Johnston pretty late into the third quarter of this game. If you wanted to read into that, that was pretty interesting to me with Luis Perez playing after Brandon Rice and Darius Davis That's a weird situation. Then I think it hasn't gotten a lot of attention that Matthew Stafford has a ham string injury and just continues to mispractice and is going to continue to mispractice. Sean McVay says he'll be fine for week one, but a little concerned about my 36-year-old quarterback with a soft tissue injury. Rams fans.

Yeah, I mean, I'd be concerned. Hamstrings can be tricky because they don't heal quickly. They can be nagging. You rush back too soon, you're going to get a bigger issue, and he's not young. So fair, valid. But I'm not going to panic until It starts to limit him on the field. And then at that point, oh-oh.

No, they put their announcers. They have one of the best announcing teams with Mina Kimes and Andrew Siciliano, our friend. Both of them are our friends, of course. They're both so good, and Andrew Whitworth. Then they have Sean McVay in the booth during the game. Did you catch any of that? I did not. I actually do want to go back and watch it, but I was trying to catch up with all these games. I have not seen that yet.

Yeah, and I was in the same boat, but I did see Aubrey Pleasant on the sideline, firing his team up, really embracing being the head coach for a day. It was nice.

I like that. I like what he did, putting a spotlight on Aubrey Pleasant, which if you hear people around the league talk about young rising talents, he has such a great reputation. Jordan Woodington, I think, is a real receiver. I think they have really good depth. He has looked like their best offensive player through two weeks of the preseason for the Rams. All right, let's move on to your Browns. They played the Vikings. Let's go with the biggest news between these two teams that have happened since we started, which is a Stefan Gilmore on the Vikings. That was the team that, to me, made all the sense in the world. The Panthers, I think, wanted him. They needed a corner I think Gilmore chose the team that's better, and he chose a defensive coordinator he knows well in Brian Floris.

Yeah. Look, we saw two veterans get signed this week, the other one being Justin Simmons. It reeks to the old Michael Strahan sitting on a practice thing, sitting on a training camp.

That isn't it because it's this portion, too, because training camp officially ended this week. Now it just goes into regular season prep mode.

Right. You could just step on a field and be like, All right, I'm here. I'm I'm ready to prepare for the season. I didn't need camp, and I'm going to ball out. It's a nice reinforcement for them. A team that on paper is a bit in flux but could use some help at that position. I like the signing for them. It's a no-brainer.

Yeah, they've been really injured, and I think they needed a cornerback before they were injured, and then they got injured. I think that's a big move for them. I know that playoff game is in everyone's mind, at least Packers fans, when I threw out the possibility of Gilmore joining the Packers at one point. Yeah, he got smoked a few times. It was the end of a long season, and he's a veteran. He played really well for the Cowboys for most of the last year.

Also, speaking of corners with the Vikings, they made that trade, N'Shon Wright from Dallas. Andrew Booth goes to Dallas. Andrew Booth had a hell of a game in that Raiders game, by the way. I know he didn't touch on it earlier.For the Cowboys.He was fantastic. He was a great open field tackler.

That's not what he's known for either, by the way. I know. In the preseason, that's what it's for. That dude was not a lock to make that team. I think when that trade was happening, but a game like that, then you make the team. And that's what the preseason is for. The Browns are in a bit of a crisis with their tackles. I didn't realize Jedrick Wills. I knew he started camp on the Publish, but he's still there. And then his backup got hurt, and then his backup's backup got hurt. And their starting right tackle, Jack Conklin, is still on an injury list. So let's count on one. That's four tackles that are That's not good.

I would expect them to make an addition if any of those are serious. Obviously, you have Dawan Jones on the right side, so that's a fail-safe for them on that side. But on the left side, Jed Wills, and you and I have talked about this, but Jed Wills is a guy who has never lived up to his first-round billing, but still not having him is concerning, and then losing his backups is even more concerning. I've never been a Hakeem Adaniji guy, but I've also never really been a James Hudson guy, but I would like to have either of them on the field as opposed to not.

So we'll see what they do in the next couple of weeks. Hudson was a backup, and then his backup also got hurt. We'll see.

They also made a trade.

This is just a team that's been really injured in general. Like, Jerry Judy's barely practiced for this team, Newsom, a couple of other starters on the Publish. They're quietly top Five most injured teams in the league, without doubt. Maybe top three.

They lost Senator Luke Whippler in the game against the packers and had to go trade to bring nick Harris back from Seattle, a guy that they had drafted who suffered his own injury in preseason a few years ago. So they've made moves already, and they're probably going to have to make more.

That I think they've had a bad camp in general just because of the injuries. That's the worst thing that can happen. And then some off-field stuff, we hadn't addressed this on the show, but Michael Hall, their second-round pick, defensive lineman, arrested for a misdemeanor domestic violence charge. He continued practicing with the team and actually played in this game. They are continuing to employ him and play him, and they said they're going to wait for the legal process to run its course with that. But that's just another thing for the Browns. And a decision that they didn't have to make. Some players who are lower on the depth chart, they have a domestic violence charge, and there was some of the details that came out in the police report. They get cut, and it didn't happen in this case. All right, let's move to Titans Seahawks. Another backups a plenty game. I know you watched some of it, Shuck, so what do you got for me? What was What's interesting from Titans Seahawks?

Slinging Sammie Howe, baby. Back on the Around the NFL podcast about a year ago at this time, I was flabbergasted that Ron Rivera was going to proceed with Sam Howe as a starting quarterback going into 2023. There were glimpses at times where I was like, I see why he went with him. And ultimately, the wheels fell off. We know what happened in Washington. Well, he seems to have taken a small step forward with Seattle, or he just doesn't care in his letting it rip because he had a heck of a game in Nashville. He's throwing passes down the seam, down the sideline, dropping dimes all over the field.

Letting it rip was never his issue. He lets it rip. That's for sure.

Yeah. But even navigating the pocket, he threw a beautiful shutdown pass to Esop Winston. I mean, dropped it in the bucket. You couldn't run it up there and put it in the guy's hand better than he placed it. Overall, just a great game for him. It excites me to have Sam Howe getting an opportunity to get those reps while Gino Smith is not playing during the preseason. Not saying I ever want to see them go to him, but for somebody who has already been through a lot in his short career, It was cool. It was nice to see.

And by all accounts, really struggled to start training camp. The idea that there was going to be a competition was laughable because Gino came out hot and there wasn't going to be a competition anyways, and he was how it was struggling. So that's good to hear. And I did go back because I wanted to find what happened during this week because they had joint practices, and Titans and Seahawks played all their starters, obviously, in those joint practices, and that's where they got their work. Just a couple of little notes there. Michael Sean Dugard, who does a really great job with the athletic, has noticed that the Geno, JSN, Jackson Smith, and Jigba, just the chemistry, he just believes it's been off the charts. The anticipation, the timing, the post-practice kudos that Gino is giving to JSN. Just something to watch there. Locket getting a little older. Also, there's been reports that are just really making a point to throw it to DK, even when something Sometimes the coverage dictates not to. He can still make those catches, and DK is reportedly having a good camp. You just might see a little more of the target share, I think, for those two guys, and maybe a little less of Tyler Locket, who's getting a little older in the last year of his contract.

But either way, that's a good problem to have. They are deep at wide receiver. I think they were lighting up the Titans because the Titans never have their cornerbacks practice. Lejarius Sneed never practices, just like when he was in Kansas City because of his knee. And Shidobe Awuzie has still been with this calf injury so that they are a little shorthanded in the secondary.

Yeah, I'm curious in this depth chart. I would love to see if Jake Bobo makes this team.Oh.

Yeah.he was a fun guy to watch last year. Oh, yeah. I think he's locked in at four or five.

That's a fun group. If you add him into that mix, That's a really fun group for Gino to throw to.

He might have a real... If he's four, he's only going to play if someone's hurt. But it wouldn't surprise that he'll have a real chance to have a real role, maybe replacing Locket next year. I mean, that's a way to save some money if you think a guy like that can step up. Also, just a little housekeeping note, Arden Key, the pass rusher for the Titans, six-game TED suspension was overturned. You don't see that too often. No, that's right. The guys always say, I didn't do it. Here's why, here's how. In this case, the league found the evidence compelling. According to ESPN reported it. They actually weren't the first to report it, though. Jeffrey Simmons, the Titans defensive lineman, put it out there first. But ESPN Confirmed it. Good news for the Titans there. All right, let's talk one of the games that I think was most interesting, Stealers' Bills. Let's talk Justin Fields. Justin Fields replaced Russell Wilson, who really struggled in this game, and I get it. I'm driving the Justin Fields should start bandwagon here. But I got to say, I went to watch this game after seeing everyone say that, nick, and I expected a good Fields game, and I didn't see it.

You had some good fields and some bad fields. That's every field. Let's start with the good fields. Let's listen to and watch one of the nice plays from Justin Fields in this game.

Seven instead of a third and two. Fields, some pressure up the middle, trying to get away from it, and he does. He's moving to his left, throwing, has his man for a reception along the sidelines.

That is a sick play. He's about to get tackled. He gets out of it just because he's so strong. And then almost Caleb Williams throws to the left with a lot of heat on a sideline route and gets to his receiver. And yes, there were a few plays like that, but I saw you shaking your head. I think you're on the same page as me. He had a chance when Russell Wilson went out of that game to really say, This is my job. I don't think he quite went that far.

Yeah. That play, specifically, when I watched that live, I immediately got in the slack and let the guys on the desk know. I just saw the and most thrilling play of the preseason, which is Justin Fields pulling his best Eli Manning impression to break a sack and then get away and throw almost directly into coverage. It gets tipped and it gets caught in the sideline. But I saw graphics being shared on social media after the game, comparing his and Russell Wilson's stats. Then at the bottom was like, Steeler's mustard, just three points. That really tells you the story of what happened in this game. I know it's a preseason game, but it was a lot of what we saw in Chicago. It was Justin holding on the ball too long, pulling his eyes down too quickly, getting panicked, acting frantically in the in his pocket, trying to make the best out of nothing, and not really trusting his progressions. It became pretty frustrating because he did miss an open shutdown throw at one point. He's still a supreme athlete. He still can extend plays and make plays with his legs, which is a big part of his production in this game.

But it's not consistent. It's not reliable enough to think that this guy can go out there and do that on a weekly basis. It's more of the lightning in a bottle style of football that you never build your team around. I was hoping that coming into Atlanta, or not coming into Pittsburgh, excuse me, after being in that he would be able to take a next step with Arthur Smith as his OC. Instead, I think it might be a bad fit, and I'm worried about long term how it's going to play out.

Okay, let's calm down. We're in the preseason.

Yeah, I know. But on Russ's side, he didn't have any time to throw in that game, so it wasn't a good sample size for him either because that line doesn't look very good.

No. Although it protected fields, I thought, fine. Because once you're in Buffalo's backup- You hit the right point there, which is he was running from clean pockets. Like, Some of his best plays, and I get it, that he is exciting, and he is the better option, I think, for a bad offense. I also just think the offense itself looks like a total mess. The quarterbacks are part of it, but the protection, their number two receiver is Van Jefferson. Jalen Warren left this game with a ham string injury. He might miss week one. That's really a bummer. I would say if he's not their best skilled position player, he's their second best George Pickens. That's a huge problem for them. But he left clean pockets. And so even some of his best scrambles were plays that when you watched the All-22, he had open receivers, and he didn't pull the trigger. And that was what I think was similar between him and Russell Wilson, that neither one of them were pulling the trigger. The difference was Russell Wilson just had very little protection. But the times that he did, he didn't look good. Before we move on from fields, we showed the good fields.

I am going to show It's my example of the bad field.

It is an option play, and fields has nowhere to go. I think Buffalo knew it was coming, and he's trapped in a go for a significant loss and a change of possession. Joe Andreessen, the kid out of Buffalo, undrafted free agent number 44 led the way, but nobody was fooled on that play.

It's 6 to 3 at that point. Bill's late in the third, and they call a read option, and doesn't feel the read- He makes the wrong read. It was a shutdown if he just the ball off. And that had just happened a couple of times. They wanted that score so desperately. I don't know if you watched to the very end, but they just kept going for it on fourth down in the red zone. They got there a couple of times. And whether it was dropbacks, whether it was him running, he was just freezing. They wanted to leave with something positive at the end. That wasn't even the last time that he got close, and they didn't get it. And I think part of the reason Tomlin maybe wanted it, because maybe he wanted the field to just go win this job, do something positive because of the stink on the field after the Russell Wilson start. I mean, I get the offensive line was so bad. Brodrick Jones could be a real problem with him. He got absolutely wasted a couple of times at right tackle, so that hurt Russell Wilson. But the couple of times He did have a chance, nick, I thought in this game when you slow it down.

He just wouldn't let go of the ball. No anticipation on his throws, just waiting to see a guy open. And then he holds it on these two third and longs and ends up just dumping it down, which is not the old Russell Wilson, just playing it almost Sean Payton-like, just overly safe, just dumping it down and not really going for it.

Yeah, the only time he ever got the ball out, even relatively on time, was when he dumped it down. The arm's still there and everything, but he doesn't look comfortable. Well, another thing I have an issue with, and I know Troy Fittano not being able to play had a role in this, but Roger Jones is in his second year in the NFL, and he's playing on the left side, and then suddenly they're playing him on the right side. I don't know if you remember the old Tristan Worf's quote, but playing right tackle Well, as opposed to playing left tackle is like trying to wipe your butt with the opposite hand. It's a little foreign and awkward. That's not fair to do to a young tackle. I felt bad for him as soon as I saw him at right tackle to start the game because I'm like, This is not going to go. Dan Moore has been graded poorly by PFF for years. They're not going to be in a good situation against that Bill's defense. I wanted to write about how the Bill's defense looks so good, and then I'm thinking, That's the starter against an offensive line that's patchwork and doesn't look very good.

I'm going to pump the brakes on that. It wasn't a good situation for Russell to show off anything because he didn't have time to But then going back to fields, too, real quick on that play that we just showed, this was the play that made me worried because this is a play that tells me this is a quarterback who's trying to go win a game or score on his own and not actually following the structure of the offense. It's a read option.

We're just not seeing the field. He never committed. You can see the field as a runner and a passer because the other fourth down play that they got stopped, he had time and just froze a little bit. They're just not comfortable right now in Pittsburgh. No. It doesn't look It looks like they're getting Brandon Ayuk, by the way. I think it's disappointing. They also lost their center. One of the Herbie brothers, I can't. I don't know which Herbie is which. There's two Herbie. It's Nate and nick. They're both on the stealers. One's a pass rusher. One was the starting center, but it sounds like he had a pretty serious injury.

Nate is the center. Nate is the linebacker.

They drafted a kid, Frazier, to probably take that job anyways, and now he will be starting. So they're going to be We'll see. Maybe they'll get it all together. For the Bills, they didn't play their starters too long in this game. They had Mitchell Trubisky. They sat Josh Allen, but they played a lot of the other starters. Trubisky struggled and got hurt in the game, so that's a bad combination.

Yeah, Trubisky looked bad. He actually was greeted by Steelers fans of the Chorus of Boos when they announced his name as the quarterback to start. Why?

He was fine for them. He was like a backup that was fine for them.

He was bad enough to get replaced by Mason Rudolf, and they realized how bad he was because Mason suddenly led them to win down the stretch of the season. Defensively, the Bills did play a decent amount of their starters for a little bit of time, but offensively, it wasn't much. The only bright spot in this game was Ray Davis. Ray Davis is a dog, Greg.We talked about this last week.He's there already, too.

He's a nice little late round handcuff or just pick up. If you're not into drafting your runningbacks early, just take a shot on Ray Davis.

It's like what you said West used to say. Preseason, you can always tell when runningbacks are legit or not. Ray Davis is legit. Keep an eye on him.

I thought it was interesting. I read Joe Bisalia from the Athletic, his roster breakdown. Lyle Collins might not make this team for the Bills. Just a name out there that his career is a bit on the downslope, but I would have expected him to make this Bill's team. And yeah, Greg Ruso, who was the guy who was abusing Broderick Jones, could be in line for a breakout season. He's been a steadily rising good player, but reports are that he's been dominant at camp, and so I'm looking to him. Jags and Bucks played another backups game. Mac Jones looks like he locked up the backup job, which was up for grabs because he reportedly hasn't looked that good in training camp with C. J. Beathard, but he played pretty well in this game, and Beathard didn't, and Beathard got hurt. So that pretty much ended that. Tank Bigsby is a second-year running back who struggled as a rookie, who's had some nice preseason moments. And then I'm going to go to the joint practices and the reports out of that from Pew to Report, and then John Shippley on sa. Com. Everyone just said Brian Thomas had a really strong joint practice showing just people just could not cover him.

And so the combination of Brian Thomas going deep. And then Gabe Davis actually being used on intermediate routes has borne some fruit in the last week or two or so at Jaguar's camp.

I think that's Gabe Davis' greatest strength. When he was finding success in Buffalo, he was doing that. It wasn't him trying to stretch in the field. I think it's a good complementary duo there. Greg, Mc Jones. We know what Mc Jones is, and the duality of a Mc Jones football game is still wildly entertaining, both good and bad reasons. He's stumbling over himself in the pocket, but then he just rips a dime to Parker Washington, who, by the way, had a really good game. I love the way that he's been playing this preseason and carving out a role for himself on this roster as well, because they got some talent at receiver. But my God, it was so fun to watch him play and actually just having fun with football again. He's not in New England anymore. He doesn't have the weight of a franchise on his shoulders. He can just go play football and enjoy it. It was really nice to watch.

Yeah, he is the ultimate case. I think Daniel Jones is another good one. To me, the number one test of, Are you an NFL quarterback? Is, Can Can you deliver all the time if you're protected? Because basically, all of them can. If you protect an NFL quarterback, they're going to be pretty good. Now, they'll just be like Dalton scale, like right at the line good, maybe if they're a Mac Jones or Daniel Jones type of guy. But if you protect Mac Jones, he's going to play well. Those are the guys that have long careers and can be, at least in the league for a long time. Mac Jones can do that. Now, if you give him pressure, all bits are off.Yeah.

Watch out.

He also might lose his mind a little bit. The Bucaneers are going to release Randy Gregory. That was weird, that entire saga. I don't know what happened. They, reportedly, don't know what happened either, why he never showed up. I've heard some whispers that there's a team or two that want to bring him in, and maybe he knows that a team he'd rather go to. And so we'll see. Rooky Chris Brazwell, reportedly, had four sacks in a joint practice, and they're counting on him to make some noise. And I think they're going to start him at this point. And they're probably also going to start Taiki Smith at Nickelback, so a little bit of a youth movement. Those are two players to watch for the Bucks. We're going to take one more break. We still have a few more games to get through nick. We have one more starting quarterback. It was decided on Sunday night. I bet you could figure out who it was. Back on NFL Daily. During the break, I learned our hard-working producer, Eric, has a baby in his arms while he's producing. This is the type extra effort that helps you make a team, Eric Roberts.

I mean, let's go. I mean, we're putting this show out on Sunday nights. We're trying to be unique by doing this, even in the preseason, almost treating it like a regular season because look, we have live football we've been waiting for all offseason. And these questions that we had, nick, back in May and June, and maybe we could have guessed the answer, who is the Denver Broncos starting quarterback? We probably would have guessed it right back in June, but we didn't actually know for sure until Sunday night, August 18th, who is our starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos, nick?

Bo Nicks. There we go. He's balling, baby. He's doing everything I thought he would do coming out of Oregon. He had another really nice game on Sunday night and confirmed, not that Stitt was terrible, but just confirmed that he's ready for the job and he's going to fit what Sean Payton once, and perhaps we'll support Denver's decision to spend a first-round pick on him. We'll see, but good start for him.

Now, we're taping this at a dangerous moment here. I don't actually know that they're naming him the starting quarterback. I'm just assuming it because that's where it was headed. It was set up that way. He started this game, and I don't know this for sure, but I bet Sean Payton did everything possible to just break out the good stuff. Make sure Bo Nicks was comfortable out there. He had the starters. He's going against the packers' backups. The packers sat like 30 guys and call all the best plays. Not that you shouldn't try to do that, but maybe game plan just a little bit more in the preseason that you went to make your rookie play well, give him confidence because he's going to be your guy. And he delivered 8 for 9, 80 yards, TD, 10 points in his two drives, and then they just took him out. Would have been two touch downs, but the first touch down throw he had, he was about a yard past the line of scrimage. It's actually a pretty impressive improvisational play where he just lost track of just where he was on the field. So that was a mistake.

But otherwise, he got out of pressure, and they diced him up. I mean, you can say it's against the backups, but a lot of times we don't see starters dice up the backups. They diced up the backups.

Yeah. I mean, this is the right step for a Sean Payton tenure that has been fraught with issues since he arrived. He showed up to a team that he did not... But the quarterback that he didn't want, that he didn't choose, and tried to make the best of it, and then realized this was not going to work. Down the stretch, no.

He tried to make the best of it while also letting everyone know this was not his guy.

Yeah, and we're going to bench him because of money, and it's going to cause a whole thing. Now they're on to clear skies and new beginnings with Mr. Bo Nicks, who actually, you got to feel good for the kid because he started his career at Auburn and then ended up transferring to Oregon and had all this play time in college to really develop because he never really developed at Auburn. And now you look at him in the NFL and you're like, Oh, that kid's seen a lot of action. And he looks more prepared than most guys at his age.

Well, that's the benefit of him and Jaden Daniels being so old and playing so much college football that they can come into the league and they're just way more experienced. It's almost like the four-year college basketball players versus the guys who are just one and done that, yeah, maybe they have a lower long term ceiling, but a lot of times they can come in the league in the NBA and be a valuable role player right off the bat. And that's what in Bo Nix's case, I think the role he's trying to fill, not be a role player, but be just a solid, steady quarterback. We'll see. I'm way more interested in this Seahawks-Broncos week one game than I was a month ago. I don't know why. I'm just curious about both these teams. I want to see what it looks like. Bo Nix, Very, very solid camp. Devante Williams, very nice camp. He's had some juice. He's their starter at running back. Tim Patrick, there was some question whether he would even make this team. He's made some plays in the preseason. Riley Moss is going to lock down the job at cornerback, I believe, opposite Patrick Sertan.

So he'll be, I believe, the first white starting cornerback in a long time because Cooper Dujine has been hurt. So everyone expected he's going to be the guy. But actually, it's going to be Reilly Moss, who was beaten on a play deep at one point, but for the most part played well in this game. I'm not going to take much out of the packers because they didn't play any of their starters. But this actually has made me more optimistic, nick, about the Broncos than anything, is that all the packers and Broncos reporters that were there at the training camp practice was like, Oh, yeah, Denver put it on them on both sides, especially the defense, the packers defense, which has reportedly struggled throughout camp. Like, packers defense has been giving it to him pretty good, and now the Broncos defense gave it to him pretty good. And reportedly, Bo Nicks held his own and did pretty well in the joint practices, too. Now, maybe it's the Mile High air, or maybe the Broncos are just a little more ready right now than we expect. Who knows? I don't want to I got too much from it.

But if I'm a Packers fan, I'm mildly concerned.

Well, yeah, because they're going in this season with so many expectations after how they ended last year. And we don't take too much away from camp and preseason and everything else. But I just think from a Bronco's perspective, it's really It's nice to see what Sean Payton could potentially do. Because last year, there were times where I was like, Man, he's halfway to the country club. This is the Mike Ditka in the Saints job for him. And yet now they look like they're in a better position. So I'm very excited to watch them. And also a tradition unlike any other, Seahawks Broncos Week One. We're just going to make that an annual thing now.

Okay, I like that. Look, Sean Payton is a Hall of Famer. He's one of the best offensive coaches ever, period. I've been doing this since 2004. Him and Kyle Shane would be my number one, number one and number two, and Andy Reid, number one, two, three in some order. Even last year, I think you could see that he could coach offense. He gets his teams to focus on the details so well. He's just a special coach. It's everything else that was going on, so we'll see. My guy, Michael Pratt, didn't really take advantage of his chance to become the backup quarterback. Both him and Sean Clifford had both been struggling, but Pratt, with a fumble in this game, couldn't really move the ball. Final score, Broncos 27, packers 2. I usually don't even give this final score, but that one is just a... You know. Objectively funny final score, 27 to 2. Carlos Colts. This was the game I have the hardest time taking anything from just because there's not a ton of reports from either of his teams during the week. There wasn't a lot of starters in this game. Trey Benson, the rookie running back of the Cardinals, I thought, had a bunch of really good runs, a really great shutdown run that was like, wow, this guy can cut laterally while really moving fast.

So that was impressive. James Boyd of the Athletic says, The AD Mitchell has really been playing better of late in this wide receiver three job when Josh Downs gets healthy again, maybe it will be Mitchell over Alex Piers. Who knows? It's gone back and forth. Maybe they'll split it.

I'm telling you, Mitchell, if you give him the runway, you give him the length of time he needs to acclimate. The kid is so talented, he's going to make himself a role. It's just you have to have patience with him. The good thing about the Colts is that what we learned last year is that they have plenty of patience because they lost their quarterback after a month and found a way to still stay competitive with Garner Minchou. Keep an eye on AD Mitchell In the long run, I think he's going to end up being a productive player, and all the criticism going to the draft is just going to be an afterthought.

I thought it was interesting. Odingbo was playing in the fourth quarter of this game. I had him on my top 50 free agents 2025. Maybe I had him too high. If he's playing in the fourth quarter of this game, good pass rusher for the Colts, but a little further down the depth chart, maybe, than I thought. Leatu Latu, by all accounts, has just been awesome at their training camp. I want to say more about the Cardinals. I need more data. I'm not hearing enough about Marvin Harrison Jr. I could hit you with their backup quarterback battle. It doesn't seem like it's Desmond Ritter, but there's not a lot right now. So give me more, Cardinals. Reporters, I know you're out there. I'm missing it. I'm not seeing it. So give it to me. I need more. And the fans, let me know what's going on, what's interesting there. Joudlani Woods is a name at tight end of the Colts. Just again, playing in this game. See a lock to make this team. Just a name that I used to be pretty high on and hasn't been working out for him.

I don't think-I think he's in his tough spot because that tight-end group also has Mo Ali Cox.

Not the same guy. Kylin Raison was also sat in this game, which means that's their two tight ends. But yeah, I guess. Yeah, but he's down the list. Saints 49ers was our other Sunday night game. 49ers, 16. Saints, 10. Taysom Hill. They're really using him at running back, for real, for real, and it looks good. I'm digging it. Who would have thought that Sean Payton leaves and Tateum Hill gets better? Because I thought Tateum Hill maybe had his best year ever last year. Now that he's a real running back along with everything else he is, I don't think he's a tight end anymore, but you could still use him as a receiver a little bit. I don't know. I'm into it.

The best use of him in this game that I saw tonight, lead blocking for Jamal Williams around the left side and just getting into his assignment and clearing a path for Jamal to get a first down. I was like, Yeah, we know he loves contact. We know he loves to do a little bit of everything. So why not throw him out in front and lead the way?

Yeah. Some talk about, Is Jamal Williams definitely making this team, even though Alvin Kamara has been hurt. Five for 32 tonight, so had a good night. That should help his case. And yeah, Tateam Hill actually scored a shutdown as a lead blocker, as a fullback on a fourth and goal. Derek Carr started this game, seven for nine, 47 yards. They did have a scoring drive. I asked my friend Adam West from the Saints Block Party podcast who was at the game, had that nice in-person All-22 like me and Walker did. And I said, If you send me some notes, I'm just going to read them on the show. We'll get his live reporting. So here we go. I'm going to edit this somewhat because he's a little too anti-Derek Carr. The offensive line was better. It was mostly against 49ers backups. But yeah, Rattler had a shaky game. Some was on him, some was on his teammates. But I think the Rattler agenda of him potentially at some point challenging Derek Carr, that was put on hold. Right now, Jay Kaner has a chance to still be the backup. We don't know. They're pretty deep at linebacker, the Saints.

That's a good thing to have. Adam says, No clue who the starting safety is opposite Tyron Matthew. That's interesting. And then I did want to highlight this last point. Chase Young looks good, and Brian Brazee is going to make the leap. Yeah, there has been a steady drum beat of Chase Young, really wrecking shop, and Brian Brazee, I think, is a really good second-year player. If you're looking for the strength, maybe the most interesting thing about the The Saints is that defensive line actually could be quite good. Karl Granderson, you still have Cam Jordan in a little bit of a different role. That's a good group.

I like Brazee because he doesn't fit the traditional mold of the D tackle, but he's so fast that you can win with that. He's not Aaron Donald, but what made Aaron Donald so good? Quickness, power, right? Bercy's quick. To hear that is good. I cannot wait to see him operate as part of that defensive front for this team because their offense still isn't very good. I know it's the preseason, but they have a hard time scoring. They had a hard time getting in the end zone today when they got to the doorstep. So if they need to lean on their defense more, it's going to start up front. It always starts up front, so that's exciting for them.

Then again, sometimes you see starters out there and they really struggle, and you're like, Brock Purdy went two for six for 11 yards and threw one of the more curious passes of the week that almost got picked off across his body. I don't think anything differently of Brock Purdy after that performance. It's just like, it's okay. I've seen enough. He was also playing with backups. I'm sure the 49ers wanted him to get some good work in, and he didn't, so that's disappointing. But their big issue is who's not there? Brandon Ayuk, we'll see. At this point, I think the big expectation is he will sign. Then I did think it was interesting, Christina Pink, the Fox sideline reporter who spoke, I believe it was with Shana Han, and said as much as they're not worried about Trent Williams, that That's going to be taken care of in time. You were saying about the veterans skipping camp, basically. I think there is a little bit of that going on with Trent Williams. That he's going to get some raise. I think this week is probably the week that he shows up. Whether it's early in the week, late week, I don't know.

Don't hold me to it, but I think this is the week. If it's not this week, it'll be early next week. I also wanted to just note quickly. The Saints, they would be on that list of the most injured teams, too. Marsha and Latamor, where are you? Is this He went out with an injury right at the start of training camp. Hasn't been seen since. They've had a bunch of other players in and out. Rasheed Shahid, Alvin Kamara been hurt. Fuwaga is hurt right now, although I don't think that's serious. They're just a lot of key players, if you look at their starters, they're just been hurt. So that's worrisome for them. We are going to wrap up, Chuck, the only way we know how with the World Champions. Chiefs, Lions, little rematch, little revenge game for the Chiefs from the opener last I watched the Chiefs' starters because they left Mahomes in for, what, three? Was it three drives? No, two drives. Then Wentz came in with some more starters, and they racked up a 13-nothing lead. But the never-say-die lines came back. Let's go.

Let's see, Jake Bates had four field goals?

Yeah, he's got to be their dude. Pile them up. He's got to be their guy. The NFL story had a 55 yarder. He did miss an extra point, but But hit a bunch of field goals. Henden Hooker is maybe the Lion's QB2. Let's start on the Lion's because I have less to take away from there. He's played well in the preseason, and it's a battle between him and Nate Sudfeld. So you'd like to see that with the young quarterback. And then something that caught my eye this week with Dan Campbell was he said, We're dying, quote, We're dying for someone to step up as a third receiver on this team. So, Hmm. Donovan Peoples-Jones had four targets for five yards. I don't know who their third receiver is. Maybe he's not on the roster right now.

I mean, as much as I like Kalief Raymond, I don't see that being the option. Yeah, I mean, you look at this. Actually, look at the depth chart. Doris Fountain, Tom Kennedy is on this depth chart.

I think they see Raymond as a guy who's going to be active. He's a special teamer, but he's not going to be the three.

Look, DPJ once got to Cleveland and had a lot of hype around him, and then suddenly the Browns just dumped him. He went back to Michigan where he's from, where he went to college, all that stuff, and nothing's really come of it. I'm concerned in terms of depth, because if you lose a guy, you're going to be pretty shorthand all of a sudden out of nowhere.

Yeah, they're going to miss Josh Reynolds right now, who's in the Broncos. Let's mention the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. We'll get to what everyone was talking about first, but my biggest takeaway right now is that Xavier worthy is their wide receiver one, and he's always open. Patrick Mahomes found him open early in the game.

He may have jumped. It could be a free play here. Mahomes going down the field. Worthy is wide open. He got the football.

Xavier worthy gets it to the Lion's 37-yard line. I just love that throw and catch because just haven't seen enough of those in the Chief's offense the last few years. And worthy also got behind the defense for a 39-yard countdown from Went. And the commonality with those two plays is he's so open. And that first one's against zone coverage, too. I went back to watch it, and he just does a little stutter step. And these guys, they're just afraid of this dude, and he's just by him. I think he's their wide receiver one. Maybe not in the Tyreek Hill sense, but in the he's going to outgain Rashi Rice and Travis Kelsey, in my mind, if he stays healthy.

Yeah, and I don't want to sound too cliché, but the stutter step description That reminds me of Tyreek Hill. I'm not saying he's the same guy, but that reminds me of what helps him get open. Yeah, he's fast, he's speedy, he's hard to bring down.

Let's not get carried away. Let's not get carried away.

But that's what fits in this offense. That's what makes it go down the field, which they've lacked for the last couple of years and why they become a shorter in a shorter passing game and why guys like MVS struggled there last year. You got that element back in there. Watch out.

Yes. Obviously, he doesn't have the physicality that Tyreek Hill does. He is going to have to avoid hits. He's just a smaller guy. But I I said it in the draft process, he played like a one because the attention was all on him, and he would get open at the college level, at the highest level. Ad Mitchell was the two. Why can't that work? So far, so good for Xavier worthy. I know these fans have to be really excited about him. They also have to be excited about the behind the back pass heard around the world. Let's listen to Patrick Mahomes talk about him throwing that behind the Back pass to Travis Kelsi. We'll see when we get on film, but it's not something that I'm going to try to major in.

It might be something that just happens every once in a while.

When you let it go, what did it feel like? I knew it was low.

I was just hoping Travis...

It got to Travis. I knew it was on target. It just was low. But like I said, it wasn't like I didn't do it to look cool. I literally did it as I was pissed. I was like, Why didn't you run that route like that? And then it just worked out.

Major in. Behind the Back 101, taught by Patrick Mahomes.

I tend to trust Mahomes. He just seems like a reliable narrator.

Look, we're in the preseason where you can just test out a 66-yard field goal just because, just for the hell of it. Why not test out the behind the back pass and then pretend It wasn't intentional when it was an intentional win-win?

I believe Mahomes that it has to be a very specific situation that I don't think it's a play call that you were planning to do that before it happened, and that I think he just was in a situation where it was going to work. And he does it at practice, apparently all the time. Maybe not all the time, but he's done it before, including last week in a team session, and it worked. So it's part of his game. I can't wait till that's in the regular season.

That'd be awesome. I'm thinking about when he once threw that pass, when he was basically parallel to the ground in the Super Bowl, and then they added it to Madden, and everybody was upset about it being in Madden for two years. When's the behind the back pass going to show? That's NFL street stuff, baby. We're going back to 2004. You better watch out video gamers. Here it It's been fun.

I can't wait for it. And yeah, I can't wait for the rest of this week on NFL Daily. Thank you, nick Shook, for breaking down all these games. These Sunday nights have been fun. We're going to do it again next week. It'll be more notes, probably on every team than just on the preseason games, because Next week, less starters will be playing. But yeah, it's going to be a fun week. I have Jordan Rodriegue in the studio for our next show, and we're going to talk about some possible player movement coming up. We've got Patrick Claybon and Colleen Wolf the day after that. Mina Kimes and Kevin Clark are joining the show this week to do some over-unders. It's going to be a lot of fun. Thank you. We are off and running. We are in football shape. Nick Shook is always in shape, but I'm in football shape.

You got that right.

See you next time.