Preseason Takeaways from All 32 Teams

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we have the rare dueling
I can fix some trade to talk about tonight. I'm
Greg Rosenthal in my garage for the last time during
this preseason with my good friend Nick Shook. Before the show,
I just said, Nick, aren't you feeling a little sentiment
the last time we're going to do this on a
preseason Sunday?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
And you said, now, let's get to waste one already.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, I think you're speaking for most of the football populous,
and we're right there. Cuts have already started. As we
are taping this. We are less than forty eight hours
away from the cuts being due all around the league.
We are, you know what, eleven days away from the

(00:46):
kickoff game. It is all happening. Now. Preseason is over,
training camp practice is over, all the access is over,
and now we've got some funky trades that I alluded to.
So let's just start there. So the process here, Nick,
because you know, preseason week three, not many teams play
a lot of starters, although some did. We're gonna go

(01:09):
through each game just to kind of organize it. But
we'll just give some takeaways from these teams, whether it
was related to that game, or more likely from the
preseason or the last week as a whole. We will
hit all thirty two teams and we'll go in reverse
order roughly of when they finished, except for Eagles Jets.
We're just gonna start there because we had a Carson
Wentz related quarterback trade in the year twenty twenty five.

(01:35):
Sam Howell is going to the Eagles nick so that
the Vikings, who had Sam Howell for those scoring at home,
can sign Carson Wentz to be their backup quarterback. Let's
start talking about it from the Eagles side of things.
What did you think of them bringing in Sam Howell

(01:56):
for which was ultimately like a late round pickswap and
like a sixth ultimately or a seventh that they give
up to get Sam Howe.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, for a team like the Eagles who don't need
to find out that much in preseason, one of the
things that they discovered, or at least were reminded of,
is that they love Tanner McKee as a backup. But
then Tanner McKee suffered a fractured thumb in the game
and suddenly they had Kyle McCord as their only remaining option.
This is right after they saw a bunch of Kyle
McCord in their game against the Jets and probably didn't

(02:25):
like what they saw very much, so that prompts them
to go make a move for Sam Howe, who started
the preseason and played really well for the Vikings. But
the Vikings are looking to move on because they love
Max Brozmer and they need to find a spot on
the roster for him. So it's a win win in theory,
except then they go sign Carson Wentz because they also
know that they need a veteran behind JJ McCarthy since

(02:46):
they lose the veteran presence in how So the carousel turns,
you get to put the pieces together. There's a lot
of different things involved, but that's the way I see it.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
I don't know if win win, no disrespect to where
Carson Wentz is at at this point of his career
or Sam Howell, who now three teams have given up
on in the last three years, would be the way
I'd exactly describe it. How About just like, well, better
than we were a couple hours ago. I feel a
little better. That's fine, That's all you can ask for.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Just go with a push, Yeah, push is fine.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
So Sam Howell has played some of his very best
football against the Eagles. I was wondering, like, did I
remember this right? He had some great games for Washington
against him, and I looked in it. Yeah, it's like
they've seen him play well and it sounds like Tanner McKee,
who's I believe, one of the best backups in the league,
not going to be ready for Week one, and like
you mentioned, like no real option there. Carson Wentz is

(03:38):
his interesting. You know, we do the show I can
fix him, and to me, he is the ultimate I
can fix him. Jordan rodrigeg trademark there, but Andy Reid
was not able to fix him last year with the Chiefs,
not that we really saw him too much, but they
weren't really that interested in keeping him. We'll get to
the rest of the vikings in a bit, but I'm
glad you mentioned Max Brosmer. I don't think they will

(04:00):
cut him and no subject him to waivers because he
played well enough in the preseason. So if they had
to play a game, you know, if for some reason
JJ McCarthy gets hurt, I would guess Carson Wentz is
going to be the backup to start the season, just
like Sam Howell will be the backup for the Eagles,
And yeah, you mentioned Kyle mccordy their six round pick.
All right, let's go Eagles Jets a little bit. Man.

(04:20):
This was a pointless game. So I don't know if
you have any takeaways, probably not from the game, but
anything from either of these teams that strikes your fancy.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I mean a game specifically. Like I said, I don't
think the Eagles liked what they saw from Kyle accord
very much. I was I saw John Metchi out there,
recent acquisition via trade, and I'm like, there's John Metchi.
And then I'm like, wait, where's John Metchi? He had
one catch for fourteen yards. Yeah, very much a pointless game.
Adrian Martinez ends up getting cut by the Jets. Played
the second half of this game for New York. It

(04:51):
felt very much like nobody of note is playing in
this game, and these are the guys who are probably
on the bubble, are play gonna get cut, this is
their last chance. So not a lot to take take
away from a preseason that. Look, you're the defending champ.
You don't really need to discover all that much. The
only thing, the only area of concern is the turnover
that you had on your defensive front, which I'm sure
they feel comfortable enough with going to the season that

(05:12):
they'll be fine. So and the Jets, yeah, I mean
we didn't get to see justin fields in this game.
I flipped it on and I was like, there's no fields. Well, now,
what am I going to learn from this game?

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Nothing? Really, other than Keey Ringo I think has fallen
down the depth chart enough that he was playing and
a Dori Jackson was not. It looks like it's a
Dori Jackson to be the starter if I was thinking
like larger picture Eagles. You know, they tried Cooper Dezine
now at some outside corner snaps last week during practice.
That's interesting. I think that's a break, you know, in

(05:43):
case of emergency type of deal. They're not going to
start the season that way. I think he'll be in
the slot a little bit of safety. And going back
to really the start of this whole month, it's still
such a big win that Jahad Campbell had such a great,
healthy month month, and I think he is a starter
for this team. So that is outstandy. They were not
expecting him necessarily when they drafted him to be a

(06:04):
starter right away their first round pick. Him next to
Zach Bond is really exciting, and they have a young
receiver they really like in Darius Cooper, so someone to
watch there for the Jets. I think armand Membu really
good first preseason week. The next couple were a little spottier.
We'll see. I'm not going to draw too much from
the preseason, and they never really did find a second receiver.

(06:25):
Very uncertain whether Alan Lazard and Malachi Corley, for instance,
make this team. Let's go to the forty nine Ers
and the Chargers. Nick and I moved this one up
just like slightly in the order because another trade. Brian Robinson,
we haven't hit this deal on the podcast, is a
member of the San Francisco forty nine ers. Not only that,
Nick Kyle Shannon immediately announced we needed a better backup quarterback,

(06:49):
so he does not have to battle for that job
with whoever's there, like Isaac Grendo, it will be Brian
Robinson's job. They gave it a sixth round pick for
the Commander's leading rusher for a year ago.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, this all started with Washington kind of treating this
strangely and that they didn't you know, have Brian Robinson
even dressed for their second preseason game. He sat out,
and I don't even know if he was in attendance
at the game itself, And so the writing was on
the wall. They were trying to move him and rather expeditiously,
considering he's in the last year of his rookie contract.
He's you know, if you know the story of how

(07:23):
he came to the NFL, he gets shot in an
attempted carjacking, He misses the first month, comes back in
week five. You know, has a productive, you know, first
few years, but he's not the most efficient running back.
You look at his yards per carry, it's over four.
But when you walk watch him on a Kerry by
kerry basis, it's just not really there. But he is
a bigger, powerful back and that's what the forty nine
ers lacked behind. Christian McCaffrey. Grenda is a home run

(07:43):
hitter type. He's not a guy that you're necessarily gonna
trust in goal line situations or short yarded situations. And
you don't want to bang up McCaffrey a bunch, considering
he came off of an injury last year, and you
think it's kind of an I can fix him trade again,
because if you think, well, all right, Robinson not super
productive in Washington, where he had fallen out of favorite
to Austin Eckler a little bit last year, and they
tried different guys there over the last few years, even

(08:05):
with their regime changes. But in Kyle Shanahan's offense, which
is very creative in how they run block in some
years they blocked really well. They've elevated and propelled no
names to start him in the past. Maybe he can
fix him. And if he admitted that he needed a
better back behind McCaffrey, why not capitalized with a very
low cost in a trade.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah. I've never been in love with Brian Robinson's running
at an NFL level. Just to me, he's just a
solid player. But I do love from a fantasy perspective
that Kyle Shanahan seems to love him, that he's just
a simple stretch head runner. He's putting him number two. Grendo,
by the way, came back last week from an injury
and then hurt his shoulder again in the preseason game,

(08:46):
so they are so banged up. You know, Robinson's the
only healthy one behind McCaffrey. At this point, the wide
receivers are even more banged up. Juwan Jennings they believe
will be ready for week one health wise, but we
don't know what the contract situation is so right now,
in terms of healthy wide receivers, it is very possible.
The wide receiver two behind Ricky pearsall Is sky Moore

(09:07):
acquired a couple days ago. Now they're gonna get these
guys back, whether it's Jordan Watkins the rookie, or Jacob
Cowing who hurd his hamstring again, or DeMarcus Robinson off
of suspension. They will get these guys back, but it's crazy.
I think they'll get Jennings signed ultimately, but it's crazy
right now, like they could be running like a three
ride receiver set week one if nothing changed with sky

(09:30):
Moore and Robbie chosen out there.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm also curious, like how long did Jennings feel like
this about his contract or was it one of those
things where he looked around He's like, yeah, we have
so many guys banged up, maybe now is the time
to cash.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
In, right, They really do need him. Yeah, it's tricky.
It's been reported he wants more than twenty million dollars.
Like to me, he would fit in pretty well in
the fifteen million dollar rate. Yes, give him a little
bump for this year, just make him happy. The forty
nine Ers, we mentioned they're gonna have a couple of
rookies starting for this team. Marcus Sigley, their safety at

(10:04):
third day three pick, could be starting, and Upton Stout
is supposed to return to practice this week, so is
their first round pick Mikel Williams. So that's good on
the Chargers side of things. Nothing again from the game,
it's like we're deep into the third stringers. But Trey
Lance has definitely won this backup battle over Heinike. I
think we can say that. And as we get closer

(10:24):
to the season, Shook, it looks like Haskins has won
the RB two battle. Hassan Haskins right. And I just
don't know if Naj Harris is going to be on
this roster on Tuesday, not that they would cut him,
but I mean the active roster. I would imagine he's
going to the NFI list non Football injury list, and

(10:45):
that would knock him out for four weeks because there's
just been no sign that he's getting any better as
we get closer to week one, like this is the time,
just the timeline is you have to make these sort
of decisions now, whether you're gonna put him on the
shelf for four weeks or you think he's going to
be back sooner.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, and considering that his you know, injury took place
in a non football incident, that's why he would land
on NFI and would clear the way for them to
do that. Yeah, I can't imagine they would take up
a roster spot with the guy that just doesn't seem
like he's ready. And if you even watch the preseason
actually over the last few weeks, really going back to
the Hall of Fame game, they've been trying a number
of different running backs. Nahim formally known as Naim Hines,
but now Nahim Miller Hines has gotten a decent amount

(11:22):
of work throughout the preseason. I don't know if I
don't think he's gonna make the final roster, but like
they've been trying out different guys to fake by dal
exact team.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
But I don't think he's the backup. We don't really
know who's the backup. We'll find out, you know, I
don't think you need to worry about it for fantasy leagues.
They never really solved their cornerback battle. They have four
guys all battling. I don't think it matters that much.
They're all they're all going to play. A couple of
the second year guys in Benjamin Saint Juis and Dante Jackson,
who are free agent pickups. I've been curious to see

(11:51):
that that Michigan picked Junior Colson of you know, Jim
Harbaugh's Michigan Wolverines. Everyone was like, Oh, he's the type
of guy that steps in day one. I'm not. I'm
not sure he's gonna make this team, but he's definitely
not playing much. And of course, if you're just tuning
in Rashun Slater, their left tackle is out for the season,
and that was really the biggest injury loss any team

(12:11):
had all preseason. That's that's the negative. Though. The positive
is their rookie receivers did you know, really seem to
rise as the preseason went along, KeAndre Lambert, Smith and
Trey Harris. Let's go to Cardinals Raiders. Big big battle
between Clayton Tune and who else was out there. Who's
the third string for the Raiders. I'm forgetting cam Miller.

(12:33):
Cam Miller it is, and they might need cam Miller
shock because Aidan O'Connell got hurt in this game and
is out six to eight weeks.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, not great, not great. It's a bummer because this
is the guy that we accurately said last year has
carved out of place as like an eight to ten
year backup in the NFL. And you felt pretty good
about this group going into the season with Gino with
the ones and AOC behind him, and now you don't
have him, So it is weakness, but you hope the
Gino is able to stay on the field. If you

(13:02):
think in the year's past with Gino at the Seahawks,
even when he got banged up, he usually found a
way to stay on the field even if he wasn't
one hundred percent. So I'm not gonna be super concerned
about it, but yeah, maybe they will need cam Miller
with a team that frankly, I think was very fun
to watch throughout the preseason and especially fun in this game. Like, yeah,
you know, in some of these games they weren't playing

(13:23):
against the starting defense, but the Gino Smith offense and
the Ashton Genty offense. It's fun to watch and Genty,
you know, was ran hard again in the brief time
that he was out on the field against the Cardinals.
And and look, I'm excited about Raiders football this season,
even if you're a little bit thinner at quarterback. And
this game provided us with another great highlight.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yes, Gino Smith throwing the ball to Dante Thornton. If
you are watching on the YouTube, we appreciate you, and
you can see this dime by Gino And it was
one of two throws to Thornton in this one drive
that the starters played, and they scored on the Cardinals
backups right away where Thornton created no separation whatsoever, but

(14:02):
Gino just fires it in there into a tiny window
and Thornton got both grabs like hand catches. And this
just made me think he's gonna be confident going to
this kid. So that that was one of the bigger
stories I think from the Raiders preseason that the fourth
round pick Thornton earned a starting job and you know,
the second round pick Jack Besh, I don't think it's
gonna be playing much earlier, or at least early in

(14:26):
the season. So we'll see Pete Carroll did say Shook
that he wants a veteran quarterback in there. Now. Chip
Kelly's familiar with DTR who got cut by the Eagles.
Should have mentioned that when we talked Philadelphia. You know,
was his quarterback at UCLA. That's a guy who's played
in the NFL. He would come for free. I don't
know if they'll aim higher, for like a one month

(14:49):
backup job. We'll see you're making a face.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
I don't like the idea of bringing in DTR as
somebody who has experienced because DTR, the DTR I knew
before the Browns traded in Away had regressed and he
looked like the same DTR with the Eagles when he
played in the preseason this year, which is why they
caught him after acquiring him via trade. So that doesn't
feel like much of a solution. But I under now
connection there and there is a connections.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Surprised, right, But you only have so many roster spots,
So do you want to keep him over cam Miller?
Probably not. They'll they'll maybe look for a veteran somewhere.
I really struggled to find much. Cardinals, certainly out of
this game. Really the most interesting news for them came
early with injuries. They lost a couple of their cornerbacks early,

(15:36):
starling Thomas Sean Murphy Bunting, but I still think they're
deep enough there for now. And then Walter Nolan, someone
we haven't mentioned in about a month, their first round pick,
started camp with an injury and does not seem that
close to returning, so he could start the year on ir.
Jordan Rod reag and I are going to hit all

(15:57):
the transactions on Tuesday, so no sense pre viewing that
too much. But they do have a couple injured defensive
linemen where I'm wondering if they're going to stash them
or not. The Bills and the Buccaneers played a football
game this week. Josh Allen did not play any preseason
for the first time in his career, but they did
have some players out there obviously in practice this week

(16:20):
and Tredevious White, actually their starting cornerback, got hurt in practice.
And they must really not like Razulo Douglas because man,
they need a cornerback badly and they have not called
that dude, and they're short on Maxwell Harrison. I would
really recommend people check out the podcast that dropped in
the feed over the weekend was really great doing it

(16:42):
on the future of defense with Mister match Quarters, Cody
Alexander and Jordan Rodrigue, and it was great. But we
talked a lot about the Bills defense there. I don't
want to repeat myself, but I don't think they're happy
at safety. I don't know if Dan Jackson even makes
this team. There's just a lot of questions. They're a
team that's really good that I think could be very
active over the next few weeks. A lot of times

(17:04):
it's the bad teams that are claiming guys and making trades.
I think the Bills could be looking for some guys
that actually play snaps for them.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, I'm thinking about the cornerback market and what's available,
because look, if you were This is no hate on
Tredavious White, but he is not who he was when
he was in Buffalo the first time. He just isn't.
He's had multiple injuries over the last few years. He's
bounced around from the Rams to the Ravens and now
back in Buffalo. And you weren't counting on him as
being one of your starters. You were hoping it was
gonna be Maxwell Harriston, who got hurt early in camp,
and so you needed Trudevius White. But if you were

(17:32):
going to go into the season with him as one
of your starters, that's not really the best kind.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Of clip of him on hard knocks squeezing out the
sweat from his socks. Yes, one of the most disgusting
things I've ever seen in my.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Entire We had both ends of the spectrum. We had
him trying to get a custom ice cream dish at
a local ice cream parlor made, and then we had
squeezing out the socks. That's the Trudavious White camp experience.
But I just think about the quarnerback market and I'm like, well,
what else is really going to be out there? So
it's gonna be fascinating to see if somebody else comes
available from a team that just has a surplus and
the bills are you know, maybe find a way to
jump on it. But yeah, I don't think they're done

(18:04):
there at all, because even if you look at two
years ago, it was there. The story of the defense
was like, we know what we have in our safeties.
We have Matt Mulano, everybody else around them. You know,
we drafted Greg russo we hope he gets there. The
conversation has since shifted to, like, we like our front
seven more and we really don't know about our secondary anymore.
We drafted Cole Bishop last year. He kind of struggled
to stay on the field. Now he's gonna be one

(18:25):
of our starters. And you think about the cornerback situation,
and you're right about Russell Douglas. They must You're right,
they must hate him because he's a good veteran cornerback.
He was with them last year, not with the team.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
I mean, he didn't play well. I agree with that assessment,
and no one else has signed him. Maybe he wants
too much money, Maybe he's ready to go. How about
a little Steffan Gilmore reunion. I don't think that their
ten his tenure ended. Well, he's still out there. They
are a rare team when I was looking through the
rosters that actually has a lot of tackles offensive tackles.

(18:55):
So maybe they could make like a trade of one
of their depth guys. Just there are almost no teams
that have extra offensive linemen, but they might. The Bucks
certainly don't have extras because they're short. Tristan Wurf's early
in the season. I thought Tesz Johnson had a really
good game. I think he's done enough to make the team.

(19:15):
Shiloh Sanders Deon Sanders' son got ejected for being in
a fight on Saturday, then was cut on Sunday, But
he might end up on the practice squad. I don't
think he got cut because he was ejected. It's just
the time of year that guys like him get cut. Well,
we'll see. And then I did hear Pewterreport dot com?
I was reading that or no, rather it was Joe

(19:38):
Bucks fan. Give a shout out to him, said Ronde
Barber on the broadcast, said, there's a Teddy Bridgewater Kyle
Trask quarterback controversy right now for backup. So that's the
best I could give you for a Bucks nugget.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Trashman thirteen for seventeen this game. But when you the
Kyle Trask experience is like hanging on to the edge
your seat the whole time because you just don't know
where it's gonna go. I would I would imagine if
you're really a contender, you probably lean on Teddy being
your backup. Trask has been the backup who's lingered in
the shadows since the final year of Tom Brady and
luckily never had to really see the field for them.

(20:12):
You're right, it was a bad day to bea Sanders.
By the way, Saturday was considering we have got to it.
We haven't got to it. Oh, cool backflip by Tess Johnson,
by the way, after he scored. That was awesome.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
That was That was awesome. Jason Light, by the way,
had some comments about Hassan Reddick last week. Jason Light's
their general manager. That just gave me some optimism about
Hassan Reddick. I think they're really happy with what they've
seen out of him as a leader and on the field,
and him talking about already maybe this can turn into
a long term partnership Reddick in the Bucks and I

(20:46):
was like, Ooh, if they get the good Hassan Reddick,
that would be really good for them. Reminds me a
little bit of when they got Jason Pierre Paul when
most of the NFL probably thought he was really on
the downturn, and they got some great years out of
him and it really helped. They had their rookies Jacob
Parrish at cornerback and Amika Abuka have two of the
best preseasons of any rookie tandem too, so that's great

(21:10):
for the Bucks. Let's talk Dolphins Jags. Hey, they showed
up the Miami Dolphins. I give anyone credit. They gave
me something to watch. The Miami Dolphins played their starters.
It was kind of sad because the offense still struggled
against the Jaguars backups. You hate when that happened. The
defense not so much. The defense was amazing against John

(21:31):
Woolford and the third string Jaguars offense, which you would expect.
But I got excited show because on the I think
it was the first play of the game, they had
Zach Seeler, Bradley Chubb, Jalen Phillips, and Chop Robinson all
in the field together at the same time. They actually
had Benito Jones two as like a run stuffer, which
is like whoa, that is an insane amount of pass

(21:54):
rush on the field at the same time, It's like, wait,
how did you even do that? And so I like
a rew and they got Jalen Phillips actually lining up
over the slot receiver, which is insane, like a two
hundred and eighty pounds, six foot four guy or whatever
he is lining up over the slot receiver. But he
just rushed. They all just rushed and they got a sack.

(22:14):
And those guys dominated the Jaguars backups as you would expect.
But it, you know, it's been so negative about the
Dolphins all camp. I gotta say they have a chance,
if everything broke right, to be an elite defensive front,
like one of the best in the entire NFL.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, you know, we spent a good amount of time
worrying about their secondary earlier in this preseason and Stefy
so yeah, rightfully, so, but you're right. I mean, you
want to put Jalen Phillips in the widest nine in
the history of football to get after the quarterback by
all means, Like they've invested so much in that area
over the last four years. It started with Bradley Chubb
and continue with Phillips, and continued with Robinson, who they

(22:51):
drafted after Phillips suffered a season ending injury. And now
they've got all those guys available. That might be the
only way that they're you know, competitive on the defensive
side of the ball because of our concerns in the
secondary and it might be what might prove to be
a strength, like you said, and then suddenly we're like,
wait a minute, we're not talking about Mike McDaniels offense.
We're talking about this incredible pass rush that comes from Miami.

(23:12):
It's like Saxonville two point zero, except it's in a
different part of Florida.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
And Anthony Weaver, who had on an NFL daily last year,
who was great year two of that Ravens scheme. I
think he's a good coach. Do they have some creativity?
They have this Day three rookie defensive tackle named Jordan Phillips,
not to be confused with the veteran Jordan Phillips, who,
by the way, is signing with the Bills and has
been in the NFL a long time. But Jordan Phillips

(23:38):
more of like a plugger up front. And the guys
at the Reid Optional had a long segment about them,
so I want to give them credit for pointing him out.
And then I watched him in this game and he's
had a great preseason where he looks like a fine
and Kenneth Grant has looked good too at defensive tackle.
So just a lot of numbers there we'll see. We'll

(23:58):
see if it works on the flip side TWA. And
the offense looked pretty rough against the backups, you know,
they they didn't score for I think it was a
driver too. And then it was fourth and six like
on their side of the field, and McDaniel just let
them out there. I think it was their third drive
and he's like, we got to get something going, and
to ta credit, he hits you know, a fourth and

(24:20):
six when the other team, the Jaguars, send a blitz
and then they end up having a good rest of
the drive and get a touchdown. At least leave on
a positive note. But I was checking out the joint
practice reports shook you know how I like to score
joint practice wins and losses. Oh yeah, I think the Dolphins.
First of all, they're the only team I think they
had three joint practices, but they're definitely the only team

(24:41):
that went zero to three in joint practices. It sounds
like the Jaguars won their joint practice, so that's bad.
I think that's why Tua might have been out there
like it just hasn't looked good.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, but here's the question, did it did they at
least like improve from joint practice session like week to week,
because the first one was really bad, yeah, and then
the second one, like it was three interceptions for two
I can't I think it was against the Bears. And
then the next one was like, well, he didn't throw
any interceptions this time, So we're making some progress. And
like they you had two on record saying like, oh,
you know, I don't get I don't grade myself. I

(25:11):
don't need to do that. That's for you guys to do.
But I think we're, you know, steadily improving. So maybe
it's just a lower starting point for this team this
year in what's gonna be a high pressure season. But
if their defense plays well, which by the way, we
didn't even mention Matthew Judin's also in that pass rushing group.
They added him last week. So if they become a
defensive team, then maybe we don't need to lily in
this offense as much and we don't have to worry

(25:31):
about it as much. But I caution against just blindly
believing that going into the season.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
For context, Devon ah Chan is out hurt. We'll see
if they're get ready for Week one. Tyreek Hill hasn't
been practicing for a couple of weeks now. So yeah,
the Dolphins offense is gonna stink if Tyreek Kill and
Devon h Chan aren't on the field. Like we know
that their rookie running back Ali Gordon, I thought looked
better this week. I know he's looked pretty good in general,
but he looked really good again against second and third

(25:58):
stringers with bouncing off of guys Jalen Wright. Their backup
running back is hurt, so Ali Gordon might be getting
some snaps early in this season for the Jags. Yeah,
they didn't play their starters, so there wasn't much there.
Our friend John Shipley reports that they are looking to
possibly deal Tank Bigsby or Travis Etn probably one or

(26:18):
the other. The offensive line in the joint practice reportedly
did not play really that well, but the defense played well,
as we kind of mentioned against Miami. And Travis Hunter
has been out of team drills now for like a
week and a half. I'm still buying him in fantasy.
I don't care that he's going as wide receiver thirty five.
I don't, man, I think people are sleeping on a

(26:40):
major talent here. I just don't see the gap between
him and Brian Thomas Junior being that great once we
get to like November December.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Well, especially because there was that period earlier in the
preseason when Brian Thomas Unior was struggling with drops. So
you know, it's not something that I would say is
a serious concern. But if you're weighing the two, yeah,
maybe you do invest in Travis Hunter and Fancy and
especially if you're in an IDP league, because I don't
know if you can, but I would imagine you might
be able to use them on both sides. Who knows,
I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
I think so. And the Jaguars, by the way, have
our Armstead back in the mix, and he reportedly had
a great day in that joint practice, so he is
fully healthy and they could be a good front with
Josh Heinz Allen and Trevon Walker now has improved if
Armstead really gives them something. All right, let's give the
people something to think about while we take a break

(27:28):
and we come back and we are cranking through every
single team and their final preseason takeaways. Back in a minute.
Back on NFL Daily, Packers and Seahawks played a game
in which Jalen Milroe played a lot did not look good,
but I'm more interested and shook in a real deal

(27:49):
fight at joint practice. It took to the very last
day of training camp for two teams to really get
after it. Multiple players say that was the worst fight
they've ever seen that they've been involved in at a
trading camp. Zach Tom the Packers tackle got kicked out,
but apparently a whole lot of people could have gotten
kicked out. I am curious was anyone dumb enough to

(28:11):
ever get in a fight with Shooky at a football practice.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
I was a late bloomer, so I wasn't as large
in stature maybe as I am now, so I wasn't
as intimidating. But yes, at least two fights I got
into back in the day. One I clearly won. The
other one was kind of a draw, and then I
had to run a mile with my pads and helmet
on his punishment, so kind of wasn't worth it.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
How like, can you just jog it? Or are you
supposed to go kind of fast?

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Now you're jogging it? But in fact, I believe I
had to run that one with a fifty pound blocking
like dummy over my back, so you had to run
it with your arms like this over your pads, would.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Take the helmets off and swing when you're fighting, But
or was it more like.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Any I'm not Miles Garrett, come on, no, actually I
think it was a I grabbed a face mask and
tried to pull somebody down by It was rough.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
So yeah, we don't really know who won this joint practice.
So there's not much from the game. Like I mentioned,
Jalen Millroe, who's going to be the third string quarterback
who I'm excited to see what he can do as
a pro, was not ready to really play quarterback for
an entire game with a bunch of third and fourth stringers.
Fumbled three times, he struggled with China Nuosu for the Seahawks.

(29:22):
Seems like he's getting close. Maybe he'll be ready for
Week one. I saw a note from the Athletic that
Nick Am and Worri their safety has been playing a
little more traditional safety over the last couple of weeks
in practice, a little less like in the box playing linebacker.
That's just something to keep an eye on for Week one.

(29:42):
And then I'm not sure if Marcus Veldez Scantling is
going to make this team for sure, after the emergence
of Tory Horton, for instance, the rookie wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because first it was very
strange to watch this game and see mvs in the
Seahawks uniform at Flambeau Field wearing number one. It was
just but he was also the recipient of Jalen Millroe's
best throw of the day, which there weren't many to
choose from, so I was like, oh, that's I guess
we are in twenty twenty five after all. From Milroe's performance,

(30:12):
it just felt a lot like what you saw at Alabama,
except the Packers just kind of he was kind of
unfair third down. They were just sending blitzes after him
and that line, the backups on the line, which we
alread knew the Seattle starting line was not very good
last year. Plus Milroe being a youngster, they could not
handle it. The pocket collapse of him multiple times. Even
when he got they designed runs from the Packers shut
it down. It almost felt like they prepared for a

(30:34):
Jalen Milroe game a little bit like it was the
regular season. So not to be down on him necessarily,
but he is what he is, which is a guy
who's going to have to take time to develop as
a passer and somebody that you're gonna use as a runner,
you know, this season during the regular season games.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, I was not really thinking he would pass Drew Locke,
although maybe I guess in my highest of hopes, you
thought that would be possible. It didn't happen. Michael San
Dugard listened to his podcast and he talked to out
how you know, their offense against the Packers in that
joint practice, it was really just all Jackson Smith and Jigba,
who at this point when he's in the slot, might

(31:09):
be the best slot receiver in all of football. Just
dominating getting open all the time. And that's it. No
one else is getting open, which I hear and I
think of as a Cooper Cup, you know comment, because
I don't know if they have other guys that can
really separate the Packers that their story this month is
just injuries. When is Jaden Reid going to be back.
We don't know if he'll be back for week one.

(31:31):
When is Nate Hobbs, their cornerback, going to be back,
don't know. Dantavian Wicks, Savian Williams, the rookie receiver, Zaviy
McKinney's been out of practice. Marshaun Lloyd there their backup
running back. He's going to injured reserve. I've heard some
Romeo Dobbs trade buzz.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
But there's there's no way that happens. Why not, because
they have two healthy receivers that are like deserving of
being on the field. In fact, matt le Fluur sat
down with k Adams of Up and Adams and she
asked him about that, like there's rumors that he may
be out of town, and he was so dismissive of it.
He's like, no, no, that's not happening. He works hard

(32:08):
as a great teammates, so on and so forth. There's
no way they get rid of it. They're not gonna
have anybody left. Matthew Golden made a nice catching this game,
but like he's a rookie. You need Romeo Dobs, you
need him desperately to start the season.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
You know what my guess is, with a situation like that,
then then someone's someone's being a stinky Davis out there
and sprinkling it might be real may A Dobbs' representation
and just sprinkling that out there, you know, cause he
knows Dobbs that the numbers might not be there for
him this year. He's a free agent, Like, hey, any
team want to give a good offer to Green Bay

(32:40):
and just make him think about it? Like cause it
doesn't sound like the Packers are interested and it doesn't
make sense. I agree. I do love that bow Melton
is making this team as a two way player. I
think that's an underplayed story. A former wide receiver that's
gonna make it as a cornerback, but you could use
him in a pinch at wide receiver too. Isaiah Simmons
had the typical Isaiah Simmons camp where he got a
lot of pop early. I don't know if he's actually

(33:01):
even gonna make this team. And then I noticed they're
set up in this game, had Rashid Walker at left
tackle and then their first round pick from a year ago,
Jordan Morgan next to him at left guard. I think
it's because of a lot of injuries. Again, more injuries
like on their offensive lines. It's just a team. These
aren't long term injuries. But we'll just see what they
look like Week one. Let's go to the Broncos in
the Saints Bravo to the Broncos in the Saints. Maybe

(33:23):
not the best preseason game of the week. There was
really only two two good preseason games for true connoisseurs.
Shook Bears Chiefs was the other one. I mean, we
got Mahomes in kleeb for like almost an entire half.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, that looked like a real game, high octane.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
But our friends at the Saints Block Party podcast pointed
out and I agreed, this Bronco Saints game had a
little sum to nextra It almost felt like the regular
season for a while. Sean Payton like he it was
like a revenge game in the preseason. Only Sean Payton
could do that. We had starters on both sides. They
were playing hard and I don't have major takeaways from
the game other than the Saints defense made it really

(33:59):
hard on Bo Knicks and the Broncos offense, and for
the most part, the Broncos offense this preseason wasn't great.
It took them until their sixth drive of the preseason.
It was the third one in this game to get
a touchdown. Finally, it's not a huge sample size and
they weren't terrible, but it like looked like a football
game where both teams were trying and settling for field goals.

(34:21):
It wasn't pretty, but you could tell there was just
like a little something extra and there were a lot
of starters, mostly starters on both sides of the ball.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
This is also two teams that just agreed to a
trade earlier in the week with Devon Vealle and you know,
sending a big receiver to a Saints receiving corps that
lacked a guy over six foot one. So interesting to
see how he fits in. But yeah, I agree. Like
I'm watching this game and it's the second quarter. I'm like,
Bo Nicks is still in and I'm sitting there thinking,
all right, let me get Jared Stedham. Nope, we go
straight to Sam Ellinger after that. But you're right, it

(34:47):
was a back and forth affair. It was. There was
a lot of activity. It was there was more juice
to it than most of the preseason games, especially in
Week three, and Bo Knicks and the offense finally get
down the field and put a touchdown on the board
in early in the second quarter, which I was like, Okay,
finally he did something. Because you're right, unless it was
Stidham on the field, this offense didn't look very good
with the starters for most of the preseason. I'm not

(35:08):
going to sound the alarm bells, but the main takeaway
I had from this matchup alone, because again we have
the Saints quarterback battle, right, Tyler Schuck, Spencer Ratler, the
agenda versus the rookie. I couldn't help but watch the
Broncos offense operate and even when they struggled, and then
watched the Saints with Spencer Ratler and think, Kellen Moore,
if you just took Sean Payton's approach with bow Nicks

(35:28):
last year applied it to Spencer Ratler, it would increase
your possibility of finding success with him at quarterback because
once Shuck comes in, then you look at him and
you're like, Okay, that's a guy who is probably more
fitting for what Kellen Moore wants to do offensively than
what they're forcing Spencer Rattler do. So why not get
a little flexible. I don't know if he's going to,
but I just couldn't help but see the Broncos the

(35:50):
example of it on the field, and then the Saints
offense come on the field and just not do what
I think they should do.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Great point I guess the response would be, there's only
one Sean Payton, you know, and maybe Kevin Moore will
will prove to be a really great head coach, but
he's not Sean Payton. Certainly we haven't proved it yet.
And then Spencer Rattler and Shuck are not bo Nicks
until proven otherwise either. And yeah, the kind of bigger

(36:17):
picture is that no Saints quarterback won the quarterback battle.
No whoever got to play against the backups, and the
third stringers look better each time, so Shuck probably had
a better game. He certainly ended it well with a
really nice drive. But they both were just eh like.
And they weren't terrible either, they were just eh like.
I just I didn't have a big takeaway other than

(36:39):
Ratler played exclusively with the ones and Shuck played exclusively
with the twos, and that was the same as was
the case at practice, So they were certainly setting it
up for Rattler to win the job. Crazier things have
happened than flipping it. But if you were gonna play
Shuck it in week one, it was stupid to waste
this entire week with him with the backup cruise. So

(37:00):
I gotta imagine it's Spencer Rattler. We'll find out in
the next day or two. I have major questions about
the Saints offensive line. I do like what I saw.
Kendre Miller, a third round pick from a couple of
years ago, just has not been able to stay healthy
and has looked good. I think he could be out there,
you know, as a really good backup to Alvin Camara.
I did want to mention Bo Nicks Cortland Sutton, who

(37:23):
I think hooked up for four catches for eighty three
yards and there was a great rollout. Nicks did have
some good highlights throughout the preseason, and he's really good
at throwing to his left. It reminds me a little
of Kirk Cousins that way, except Nix's is more athletic.
Sutton was cooking kool Aid mckinnistry, so there was a
lot of pop shook about kool Aid mckinistry being like

(37:44):
a true cornerback one and everything, but man Sutton kind
of owned him in this game a handful of times,
and kool Aid it couldn't take him down on a
long play either. So just just a little note, when
if we're gonna see some starters, I'll reward you with
a little more conversation on NFL Daily. I feel like
that's only fair.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
I agree the idea of kool aid is a true
cornerback one is very aspirational. It's not really rooted in reality,
at least not right now. He did make a nice
play on a ball to the end zone. He played
good defense and that one broke it up. But yeah,
thinking that he's just going to be your new cornerback
one if you got rid of Marshall ladamer on it
last year, that's just it's overly aspirational.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Well, he is their quarterback one because they don't have any,
but not a legit cornerback one, right. Alante Taylor is
a good player, but he's their slot corner. He hasn't
been healthy. Isaiah Foski, their second round pick from a
few years ago. I think that was his last time
as a member of the Saint I think he's going
to get cut and yeah, it's going to be Troy
Franklin and Pat Bryant season on the Broncos side. I
think they're a team that's one of the deepest in

(38:42):
the NFL, and teams will be looking to see who
gets cut there. Even their running back like Odric Estime
looked okay in this game, like he could make a
team maybe somewhere. But we'll see what happens with the
Broncos cutdown day picks. All right, let's go to the
Texans and the lines joint practices and you're remember the
Lions Dolphins were the most uneven you know, joint practice.

(39:06):
Every report I could find with this one, no one
wanted to have a take. Everyone said perfectly even just
good work, good work by two good football teams all
the way around. The defense has won a little bit,
the offense has won a little bit. And I'll say
that's a win for the Texans. If you're going out
there in a joint practice with the Lions and it's
looking like your two teams are pretty even, then it's like, Okay,
that's good Houston, because the offense apparently had a pretty

(39:28):
solid day for Houston before all the starters sat in
the actual game.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah. The Lions a team that have built a reputation
for how they practice over the last year's leading the
Dan Campbell era so much that Ben Johnson's tried to
instill that in his Bears and you know, overseeing some
of the most intense practices in the history of that
beats you know experience covering the team. So yeah, if
you come away with like it was a draw, it

(39:52):
was a push, that's great for you because this is
a team that you know is expected to contend for
the NFC and if you really want to be a
true AFC contender, then you need to stack up against
the best. But it's also funny because I think they're
similarly constructed in some ways, Like this is one of
the better defenses in the NFL in Houston, Like, we
love this defense. The show loves this defense, and we
expect them to play with grit, which happens to be
the phrase that Dan Campbell wears on his hat. So

(40:14):
we like that. We like that idea. It's the matter
of the big question has always been with the Texan
since last year. Can the offensive line hold up? Can
they move the football? The line's gotten better throughout the preseason,
at least according to those who were there. And if
you're again in a draw against the Lions defense, then
that's very encouraging. No matter whether you play Graham Mertz
and Keaton Slovies in a preseason game.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Graham Mertz who was he a sixth round pick. Everyone
hated that pick. He was awesome in this game. Texans role,
they're third stringers over the Lions third stringers twenty six
to seven and not really taking much.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
I just I got really tired of watching Graham mertzs
and Keyden Slovis in the preseason this year.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
I can't believe you did it. I can't pretend that
I did. Who knows how long Joe Mixon is out
at this point. One of the stories with Houston, Nick
Chubb really does look like he's going to be the
Week one starter. So it's interesting. It'll be rugged, it
will not be explosive. We'll see it.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
Is rugged, is super accurate. It's just to be Chubb
up the middle, Chubb up the middle.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Damian Pierce will be in the mix too, who's kind
of a younger version of a similar style. So that's
a big question hanging over the Texans. And then one
thing I don't know if I've mentioned on this show
since about March or April, which is that Jimmy Ward,
who was a quality starter for the Texans, has not
been on the field for them. He is facing domestic

(41:36):
assault allegations. He's thirty five years old. It came up
again this last week because of a civil suit that's
going against him that alleges the assault and that he
was on drugs at the time. But it's just a
reminder a he's not there. I don't expect him to
be there, even though they haven't said anything about it,
and that you know, he plays the same position as
Chauncey Gardner Johnson, who's also hurt and going to be

(41:59):
out for a while. So that's just something to watch.
The Texans safety spot on the Lion's side, man Isaac Taslaw.
Every week he shows up. I didn't plan this out
shook preseason MVP wise, but let's think about it. Last week,
I don't know if you actually listened to me when
I'm honking. This is a lot of honking. I feel

(42:20):
bad for you. What like, why would you imagine that?
Imagine living with me?

Speaker 2 (42:25):
How can we do a show if I'll listen to you.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Well, you could get away with it. Do you remember
the two candidates I said, this is a tough one
for the preseason MVP award. Law was not one of them.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
It was it was Stidham, and I see, I was
on board with Stidham, and I wasn't as on board
with the other one, which is why I don't remember
the other one.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
It was another quarterback with a game winning drive last week.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Oh it was Stetsan Bennett, and I wasn't on board
with it.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
That's right. Oh he was great. He gave me, give
me a lot of joy. But when we're handing out
this award, you gotta be you gotta compete. You got
to not be afraid to compete. You got to tell
your coach if your steps and Bennett do not sit
me for preseason week three for Dresser win, who you're
gonna cut the next day? I need to play and

(43:11):
get that award. He didn't play Jared Stidham. You mentioned
it earlier. He didn't play either for Sam Ellinger. So
I know. Isaac Taslaw probably only had like eight catches
all of preseason, but they he had six of the
best eight catches all of preseason. And the fact they
played four weeks, it feels like they've been in training
camp for like months. Isaac Taslaw is my preseason MVP.

(43:32):
He did it again with another great touchdown catch I
think didn't.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
He do that with this week or was that another
He hadn't touched down catch this week, and he had
a highlight touchdown catch last week as well. He's one
of the favorites of NFL Daily as a rookie, and
I don't care what kind of pushback we get from
anybody in the comments who's like he's not going to
be in the rotation to start the season. They're gonna
find a way to put him on the field because
he's demonstrated the talents.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Got to get Tim Patrick on can't get oh god,
oh you gotta get I mean, look, all due respect
for Tim Patrick and what he's fought through in his
weird to still be in the NFL, But my god,
Isaac Islaw, he's a rookie, he's got everything's ahead of him.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Get him on the field. Let him work with Jared Goff.
He did with Kyle Allen.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
For God's sake, they will. Kyle Allen looked pretty good.
Clearly the QB two wouldn't be surprised if they flat
out just cut Henon Hooker because Dan Campbell talked about, look,
they need to have as much depth as they can
and just hasn't worked out for Hooker in these games.
They had a couple injuries early remember in camp, like
on Wuzurike is not gonna play this season, that defensive line,

(44:31):
Josh Pascal's gonna be out a while, Enis Rakestrot, these
depth guys, but they basically survived since so I was
a little worried that was like a bad start to
the Lions season. I do keep an eye on Graham Glasgow.
Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something he got hurt their
starting center at practice this week. But it's really hard
to know how serious these injuries are at this time

(44:52):
of year. So just something I'm watching heady into Week one.
Let's get to your Browns finally, I mean talk about disrespect.
They bring in Tyler Huntley for the final two minute drive,
and I'm not saying it was disrespectful to it just
was weird that they played Tyler hunt like, why bother?
I'm not gonna have a monster take, but just why bother?

(45:13):
But if you're gonna bring in Tyler Huntley and he's
gonna drive you down the field for the game winning
field goal, can you can you not cut him the
next day? You knew you were going to cut him
the next day, so why why that's stupid. The whole
thing was stupid.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
I hate to even look at the tinfoil hat that's
getting dust in the corner of this room, but I
am gonna reach forward at this point because I was
at the game. And when I tell you that for
a preseason game, a lot of people hung around to
watch Sador Sanders play. There were more people in that
stadium in the third fourth quarter of a preseason game
than I've seen in two decades of being at that stadium,

(45:51):
and I was like, Wow, they're really excited to watch him.
At one point, after his first bad drive, he ran
down to the dog Pound to get those fans riled
up before you went out there again. And I'm like, Oh,
that's not going to age well if it's anything like
the first drive. And the drive was even worse. So
my tinfoil had Conspiracy of the Week is Kevin Stefanski
got so frustrated with how bad the offense looked with
Shador at quarterback that he put Tyler Huntley in there

(46:12):
and said, I know he's gonna get the ball out
on time and not hang on to it forever and
he's going to get as possibly an in range for
a field goal to win this game, even though it
doesn't matter proving a point by doing that. I think
it was that and nothing more.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
I agree. I also think the outrage is it's all stupid.
Is the whole thing is stupid. We're talking about two
mid round rookies trying to battle to be a backup
Should there is a fifth round pick, and he had
as bad a game as you could possibly have, and
there are contextual reasons for it, and it's not the

(46:46):
end of the world. Joe Flacco said after the game.
You know, I just told them, like everyone's had those
sort of games, and it's true, but it was that
disastrous of a game. Should He was sacked five times,
he threw six passes, they had negative twenty seven yards
on his fourteen dropbacks. He was lost in this game.

(47:08):
And yeah, he was playing with a bunch of players
that weren't on the roster by like the end of
the weekend, so that all is to be taken into account.
But I do think we can have takeaways not just
from this game, but from the arc of the preseason
and camp, which is that based on all reporting, like
shoulder got more reps than any fourth string quarterback in

(47:31):
history at practice, and he looked really good for the
most part at practice. So he kept getting more and more,
and Dylan Gabriel nick started slow, but sometime after he
came back from the injury. I don't know if the
practices were better. I think they were better, but the
games were great. Like, he looked great in the games.
I would have given him a B plus for his

(47:54):
first appearance in the preseason, and I'd give him an
A minus for this one. Yeah, So yeah, like held,
he just looked better, and so he's got to be
the first one off the bench, I think, I assuming
it's not Kenny Pickett.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Yeah, you know, folks are like, oh, after the Carolina game,
a Caablie Shoudoor is still fourth on the depth chart. Well,
now that the pre season has concluded, you see why
the death chart is what it is, which is that
Dylan Gabriel came out in two games and handled the
job as pretty much as well as you can. He
made the mistake on the pick six against Philadelphia, but
I think in total he probably made three or four
decisions where they like, You're just like, oh, that was
a flat out bad decision that you need to learn from.

(48:28):
There was another one where he was scrambling to his
left in the red zone and he basically had a
clear path to the end zone, if not close to
the goal line, yes, and decided to fire it into traffic.
And it looked a lot like the throw that he
attempted against Philadelphia that was picked off by Andrew mccubaugh.
So and that was that happened right in front of me,
and I'm like, oh no, he did it again, Like
just run. Those are the things you learned from. But

(48:49):
as the way I describe him, had somebody behind me
asking the questions like, how do you think this is
going to shake out? And I was like, this is
how it's going to go. They're going to go with
Joe Flacco. If Kenny Pickett's on the team, he'll be
the backup, and then it's gonna to be Gabriel, and
then it's gonna be Shador And I think at some
point you're gonna see all four if Picket's on the team,
just because history says the Browns play a lot of
quarterbacks over the course of the season, and I think
that Gabriel in two games has done. He's been a

(49:11):
game manager who has not taken any shots downfield, and
I don't know if he's capable of doing it, but
I don't think Kevin se Fancy wants that in a quarterback,
especially a young quarterback. He wants somebody who's going to
manage the offense and execute it as he wants it executed.
I think Gabriel checked all those boxes. It's just that
he's got a lower ceiling. Chador had that great game
in Carolina, really bad game against the Rams, and didn't
play in Philadelphia because he was dealing with an oblique injury.

(49:33):
So the picture is a little bit more unclear. But again,
this isn't somebody that you were gonna expect to be
on the field in week one. So it's fine. He's
a young guy who needs time to learn. Let it
just be that and not some conspiracy that they're sabotaging him,
because they're not.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Kenny Pickett is still on this roster. He's reportedly getting healthier. Look,
if the Raiders want to send them some sort of
pick for Kenny Pickett, they might just be like, Okay,
that's fine, because Gabriel maybe showed enough be to think Okay,
he could just be our backup, you know. I think
he'd be ready at least to be a backup. I

(50:06):
thought he got through his reads quickly, like there was
an opposite hash throw to the out, which was great.
People get on him for his arm strength, and I'm
sure he doesn't have like the cannon down the field,
but he has more than enough, oh yeah, to play
at the NFL level like he and he was processing
and going through his reads, like I said, pretty fast.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
So he was decisive. The height thing is going to
be an issue. I saw one ball that he had.
I think it was the Larvadane where he got blasted
in the back by a defender where it got deflected
at the defense at the line, and that's why it
was off target and why his receiver got hit. And
I think that's going to continue to be an issue.
But he is mobile enough to roll him out if
you have to, So yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
One thing I clocked which was interesting. Zach Jackson has
a podcast on the Browns, and he said, considering the
amount of outrageously good throw Shad made throughout camp, he wondered,
what else is going on for Shoudar to not get
higher on the depth chart and more opportunities. Just kind
of an interesting blind item when that comes from a
Beat reporter of just don' I don't know. I don't

(51:08):
know what he meant, but I found it interesting. I
am gonna shout out a guy that Andrew Siciliano noted
on Twitter is making the team because Key.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
I was gonna do this if you didn't.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Do it, because that then I won't sound like a Homer.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Product of the two lane Green Wave, Aiden Hutchinson, the
defensive tackle who started the game playing full back, finishes
with a sack and a half forced fumble, has made
the team. And it's especially personal to me because, as
we chronicled last year, around this time, college Football twenty
five came out and I led the Green Wave do
a national championship just to make Greg happy, and Aiden

(51:44):
Huntington was a standout on that defense for me. So
it's really happy to see real life Aiden Huntington succeeding
and making a roster in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
And that he's playing both ways, that he's playing full back.
He had a couple of surreal pet card a couple
of TFLs. I don't know, like he never says anything,
and then he went to the podium and said this
undrafted rookies making the team. I think all the reporters
were like, what, he never says stuff like that, so
they love him. That's a cool camp story. I don't
have much to say on the Rams. Terrence Ferguson, their

(52:13):
second round tight end, played in this game and looked
quite good, just galloping and stride. Had one play down
the field, but got open a couple times and will
be interesting if they use him during the season. It
was a good camp I think for Nate Landman at
linebacker for the Rams. They do not play any of
their guys in the preseason at all. The lack of
surprises in general for the Rams, it means they had

(52:35):
a good training camp. There wasn't a lot of news
other than Stafford and we'll see, but maybe my Stafford
panic was a little unnecessary. We'll see. He had a
good week, a good first week back. We don't really know,
but it sounded like he checked a lot of boxes
to progress during the week.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Look, no news, I think is good news considering we've
chronicled this. I mean we were literally at the point
last week where he took the field and pads and
the Rams tweeted out and I wrote about it without
knowing like what capacity he participated in or anything. That's
just how slowly this has progressed. So you hope that
you hear less and no news is good news for him,
considering his age's injury history and everything else. I do
want to go back to the game though, real quick.

(53:12):
One guy that stood out to me from like field
level viewing was safety for the Rams. His name is
Tanner Ingle, and he played his tail off in that game.
That man was laying the wood on defense special teams.
Number thirty four was flying around the field and I
just checked their cuts. So far he's still on the roster,
so keep an eye on number thirty four.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
What So, I was watching the broadcast last time. I
get to see the best trio in the game. JB. Long,
Mina Chimes and Maurice Jones drew here here locally and yeah,
Sean McVay comes on that broadcast and does you know
half a quarter? He's so good good at it. I
think he called them the human missile.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah, that's how he played.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Sean McVay just loved that guy that he showed up
each and every week he was the postgame interview, So
I am a sucker for stories like that. I think
he made the Rams. Let's talk Colts Bengals. How about
those Colts third stringers just wiping the floor with the
Bengals forty one to fourteen. It's crazy that they charged
full price for preseason games. I keep saying this first

(54:15):
season ticket holders. It's just it's just outrageous. The quarterback
matchups in this game shook. There were some wild ones
this weekend, but I think Riley Leonard and Jason Bean
versus Desmond Ritter and Thorn. Who's Thorn Pee Thorn? I
don't know who that is on the Bengals. That to
me took the cake of the most preseason Week three

(54:37):
matchup of the week. Peyton, we don't say anything about
this game. Nothing happened in this game. Say something about
one of these teams, if you please.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
No.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
I wanted to give a shout out to the defensive
back who came back from an acl tear as a
rookie and then an achilles tear in the following season.
Last name is Scott had a pick six That was nice.
But yeah, I mean, we know the story for the Colts,
it's been the quarterback competition, it's been the whole Daniel
Jones wins over Anthony Richardson, and I just see a
low ceiling for each option in this offense in a
year that change. Styken needs to win games because his

(55:07):
job could be on the line. Same goes for Chris Ballard.
I'm just not super inspired or encouraged by what the
Colts have shown me in the preseason so far. So
we'll see. And the Bengals, their big question mark was,
you know, is their defense gonna be good? All the
talk out of camp was like, oh, this defense might
actually be good. We haven't seen it so far. When
they played Washington on Monday night, they didn't look very good.
So and you still have the Trey Hendrickson thing lingering

(55:29):
out there as well. We know what this offense brings
to the table, as long as their offensive line can
hold up. We know what they're they're going to do,
and surprising depth at running back as well. We know
what they have a receiver and everything else. It's the defense.
I just yeah, I got those guys.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
They practice, they keep seing. Okay, that's great practice.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Do it on the field. Do it in Cleveland a
week one against forty year old Joe Flacco, and then
maybe I'll buy in because you have guys that are
unproven that you've drafted over the last few years that
have to be contributors this year. It's good. It's a
big ask, so I need to.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
Prove they love me, Knight. But then he shows up
in the games and he doesn't. He doesn't look good.
Back to the stike in of it all, I'm gonna
play a clip and this is from the athletic reporter
James Boyd asking Shane Stike in after you know, deciding
to go with Daniel Jones, if he has any regrets

(56:21):
and just like listen to the questions and listen to
the answers. Beyond injuries, what other things do you think
you could have done.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
To help the go and play get to where you see?

Speaker 4 (56:31):
Yeah, I think that's a process. It's a day in
and day out process. Like I said, just in the
meetings the classroom, you know the fundamentals of everything, and
continue to work and stride in those areas. And he
hasn't made improvements in those areas, and I think he's
going to continue to improve in those areas.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Because what you specifically though, what did you think you could.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
Have done well?

Speaker 2 (56:52):
I think you look back in those situations.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
Like I said, I mentioned the injuries, but again meeting
with them, met a lot with them during those injuries,
you know, just obviously from a mental standpoint, staying in it.
And I think he did a good job with that
and he's continue to improve with that.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
What you know, I'm always wondering, like gas lighting is
one of those words that you're like, I know what
it means, but it's hard to describe. What does it mean?
Like that was gaslighting? He didn't remotely answer the questions
what could have you done better? Shane Stikeen? And it
I teed it up partly to get to a larger point,
which is if Shane Stichen was a coach of a

(57:32):
more popular team, a national team, I think he would
get a lot more grief from how lame he is
in front of the podium, how he never answers anything,
and he sort of got like I'm smarter than you
attitude when you know it just it just drives me
a little crazy. A reporter is finally trying to drill

(57:54):
down and ask a real question, and what were those answers.
They were answers to a completely different question that I
don't even know what that question.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
They weren't even answers to a different question. They were
a defensive But he's it was his defense of himself.
He's like, right, like, how could you have been better?
And he's like, well, I met with him a lot,
like that's not what we asked. We asked how could
you have been better? You could have said, well, I
could have done X, Y and Z. No, he just
recapped what he did for him. It reminded me of
like a CEO of a company that's been caught red
handed and then they just tap dance around it with

(58:24):
you know, a word souad. That's kind of what that was.
And you're right, I think that if they were a
pillar franchise like a Cowboys or something like that, they'd
be under the microscope daily for their current situation and
how they handle this quarterback situation in the way that
he operates, But they're not. So that kind of explains
who the Colts are in a nutshell right now, and
you hope that it ends up better than that.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
They said that, and Daniel Jones is gonna be the
quarterback for the rest of the season. They also said
that about Joe Flacca last year when they benched him,
and two weeks later they went back to Richardson. I
don't think they're going to do that this year beyond
like an injury or Daniel Jones going to four h five,
But that's on the table. Either one of those things
positive for the Colts. Tyler Warren looks legit. I'm surprised

(59:07):
he's going as the tight end ten in fantasy leagues.
Like if you told me he had a brock Bauers
like rookie season, that wouldn't that wouldn't shock me. You know,
I know there's not gonna be that many yards to
go around there. But he looks legit. And you mentioned
the Bengals offense shook. They had five drives in the preseason,
they scored four touchdowns, Like they keep unearthing these receivers.

(59:28):
Mitch Tinsley looks like a star. Shamar Stewart quickly passed
Miles Murphy and became the starting edge. I think that's
a positive on the defensive side of things. But yeah,
that just looks like more of the same for the Bengals,
And it's been more of the same for this show too, Shook.
I think we need to take a second break, because
if we're gonna do one final preseason takeaway show of

(59:48):
all thirty two teams, we're gonna go a little long.
We'll be back in the night, back on NFL Daily, Shook.
I don't know if you remember, back in the old
you know, the round the NFL days, the unbelievable winning
streak in the preseason of the Baltimore Ravens and oh yes,
front of mine that had been and since they took

(01:00:09):
on their loss, I've noticed they've gotten it going again
this year, undefeated three and zero plus fifty three, thirty
to three over the Commanders. Sure it might be a
bunch of third and four stringers, but they just can't
help themselves. They dominate the preseason. Man. Of all the
teams in the NFL, I can't think of one that
had a more uneventful camp, and for a good team,

(01:00:31):
that's great. It's really ever since Isaiah Likely's injury and
we don't know if he's going to be ready for
the start of the season or not, it's been quiet there.
There really hasn't been much going on, and I feel
good about my potential Ravens super Bowl pick right now,
not that's gotten in their way.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
I feel better about that pick than I felt about
your Bill's Super Bowl pick last year. And I'm completely
on board with that pick.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
They got to the AMC title game. I mean, I
know it wasn't a bad.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
You're right about the of the Ravens, though, Like every
time I went through their games this preseason, I was
more interested in the team they were playing, like I
was watching it for the other team, not for Drew
Leary and the Ravens off and Rashean Ali and random
Dearness Johnson, Like, no, I don't need that. I want
to see the other team play because I know who
the Ravens are, and they know who they are, and
they're still going to dominate the other team even if
they're playing with a bunch of backups. It's just the
sign of a rock solid franchise that has greater aspirations

(01:01:24):
at this point in the season. So even in this
game with a bunch of backups, this is one of
those preseason games we were like, let's not talk about
the game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Yes, we hit the Brian Robinson trade from the other side,
but for the Commanders It's definitely a show of confidence
for our guy, Corey Krofsky Merritt. I mean, I know
the whole country got on this guy. But you know,
we were there five or six weeks ago, really given
weekly segments to Bill.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
But yeah, did we know it was Bill at that time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
We didn't know it was Bill for a couple of weeks.
I think Chris Rodriguez will play for this team too.
I think they like Austin Eckler. I actually think for
fantasy people are probably getting over their skis when it
comes to Bill because I think they're gonna play Jeremy McNichols,
they're gonna play Austin Eckler, like they're gonna play all
these guys. But it Crossky Merrit's still fun. I noticed,
you know, Luke McCaffrey's out there with a deep third stringers.

(01:02:14):
Noah Brown's been hurt all Camp two. One underrated thing
for this offense is that I think they're gonna miss
thea kias Olamide Zakias and Diami Brown more than people remember.
It's like, yeah, they added Deebo Samuel, but those guys
are pretty good NFL receivers, and you're kind of seeing
them actually have real roles in their new spots for

(01:02:36):
a reason, and no one really stepped up in the
depth group in camp in terms of the practice reports
from the commanders.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, if you look at them
on paper, I've always liked kJ Osbourne from his time
in Minnesota, But yeah, if you're swapping and you want
proven production from veterans that are just like replacement level
or slightly better, I think it's a concern for them.
And you also wonder are you gonna get in a
full season at a debos. That's really the big thing
with them. So overall though, I'm not gonna like sound

(01:03:05):
the alarm bells with them because we really don't know
what they're gonna look like until he take the field
in Week one, but yeah, it's yeah, you could be better.
And McCaffrey playing in the you know, in the third
quarter with the third stringers that's not really encouraging, but
you kind of saw this going in that direction for
most of this camp in preseason.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
I like the secondary, and I like marsh and Lattimore
staying healthy and practicing throughout camp. I can't, you know,
tell you how rare that is. Saints fans know that
it just hasn't happened in years and years, So that's
a good sign for him. Trey Amos, their rookie cornerback.
Everything has been positive with him. All right, Let's get
to the Bears Chiefs game of the week. You know,
it's like, oh no, we can't possibly expose Davis Mills

(01:03:47):
to the rigors of preseason week three. He's too valuable.
We gotta sit Davis Mills. Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes, one of
the greatest players in the history of this sport, is
out there into the second quarter, diming the Bears starting defense.
And I sent out a tweet last week took about

(01:04:07):
guys I want in my fantasy leagues, you know, guys
who I want to draft. Included some under the radar guys.
Baschelle Touton was in there. It included some stars like, oh,
I know, I know J Brown, And I wanted to
put Patrick Mahomes there, and I didn't. I didn't put
Patrick Mahomes because I whimped out because I know Fantasy

(01:04:28):
white like, I think this is the year to go
get him a fantasy picky by low Sell High. And
I just got a feeling they're gonna be going deep.
They're gonna be a little bit back to the Chiefs.
They certainly were in this game. Great protection against the
Bears starters, they dominated, They look awesome, and they made
me a little more excited to watch the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
This is one of the rare preseason games where I
felt like I really gained something from watching this this contest.
And I don't know if it was like the field
mics were hot or something, but it sounded really loud
at Arrowhead for a preseason.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Yes, the energy, he's super high, like they were fired
up at Arrowhead, And I think it was because Patrick
Mahomes was doing Patrick Mahomes things, making plays out of structure,
just dropping dimes, throwing a beautiful pass to Jujus Smith
Schuster to convert a third down that looked impossible to convert,
and keep a drive alive, leading him down the field
for a touchdown. Finding a guy that I think is

(01:05:20):
going to bring a lot of value to Patrick Mahomes
and this Chief Chiefs offense overall. It's Taekwon Thornton because
of what he can do stretching the field. As soon
as he caught his first pass.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
In this game, I went God, how did they let
the Chiefs get this guy, because this was a former
draft pick who was all about speed and stretching the field.
And if any team needed a receiver to stretch the field,
it was the Chiefs since that used to be their identity.
And now he's on the team and he's gonna make
plays for them. So yeah, this was a game that
I looked back and I was like, oh, this makes
me excited for the regular season. I also want to

(01:05:52):
note that like ten different guys logged at least one
rushing attempt, Isaiah Pacheco, Patrick Mahomes, Carson Steel, kream Hunt,
Elijah Mitchell, Chris Oldoakin Garden Minshew, and like, just continue
going down the list, like that's amazing. Three of those
guys are quarterbacks. Like this is how crazy this game was.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
I don't know if Elijah Mitchell is going to make
this team. For what it's worth it if you're interested, Yeah,
sort of thing. I did. Hear Brett Veach on the broadcast,
who's been working out? By the way, you can always
tell the gms that have been working out in the offseason,
he's been working out. He popped Bushard Smith their seventh
round pick and really gave him a lot of love,
and I was like, ooh, the GM's given him love.
That that's something to file away. I still think he'd

(01:06:30):
be a nice deep Fantasy league type of pick. The
Josh Simmons at left tackle thing. It's really it's really
a thing so good. Yeah, part of my confidence in
Mahomes is just the law of averages. You know, he
is the best quarterback in football, and careers go through

(01:06:52):
little ups and downs, even for the greatest, and so
he's just like, yeah, he's not gonna have three straight
years like that. I mean, I think he's just you
know what I mean, like he's due, and I think
some of the reasons of what's around him will help.
Let's stock Caleb Williams, who made Ben Johnson a little
salty after the game. He was kind of like, that
was sloppy early. The first couple drives against the Chiefs

(01:07:14):
starters were sloppy, just not sharp, some mental mistakes. I
don't think Caleb Williams was seeing the field very well.
It was holding on to the ball that the Bears
defense was run over a little bit too. But you know,
once the Chiefs backups kind of came in there, Caleb
right of the ship, and it looked better. So I'm
not drawing too many conclusions, but it is a reminder

(01:07:36):
this could be an up and down process. Ben Johnson said, like, look,
these are some of the things that have been plaguing
us in practice showing up this time in the game. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Yeah. It felt also like approach wise, they didn't really
let Caleb throw consistently, like on a play by play basis,
until he got to that two minute situation at the
end of the first half, and at that point they
started to unleash. And at that point they were also
playing the backups and they produced. And before that it
was a lot of third and long Caleb in a
pocket that's slowly crumbling around him, doing that thing where

(01:08:05):
he stands still in the pocket and then at the
last second decides to rip one. Some of them are positive,
but yeah, the offense just felt a little disjointed until
that last two minute situation in which they finally, you know,
picked up some steam and ended with a touchdown pass
to Romo Dunze. I think this is going to be
a work in progress for them throughout this season, but
I do feel a lot better about them That's that
was my one takeaway watching this game was Okay, at

(01:08:26):
least I feel better about these Bears under Ben Johnson,
even if it doesn't happen overnight then I did going
into last season with Matt Eberflus, Like I can see
the vision here. They're gonna climb steadily. It's just not
gonna happen immediately. And if you're a Bears fan, I
think you can sign up for that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
So I just mentioned I'll meet a z A Kiyas.
He's gonna be a part of this offense. That's one
of my takeaways is like he is going to get
passes in this offense. They're running back two right now,
partly because of injuries. Is a man I don't know
that well. Kyle Manung guy.

Speaker 5 (01:08:59):
Guy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Yeah, it's a little thin at running back too, but
he's he's looked okay to Kwan Brisker, who had that
terrible concussion last year, had a healthy summer. So that
was just something I wanted to know. And then the
Chiefs made a trade on Sunday bringing back Derek Noddy
from the Jets for a late round conditional pickswap, so

(01:09:20):
that he probably was not making the Jets, but the
Chiefs are familiar with him, So a depth pick up there.
Joshua Williams, their cornerback who you know, had some pretty
significant snaps and Super bowls, at least the one against
the the Eagles the first time around, might be on
the cutting block or a trade candidate. Something to watch there.
Let's go Titans. Vikings. We already talked Carson Wentz, We

(01:09:42):
already talked Max Brozmer. The last Vikings point before we
get to a little Titans is that there's been some
pop shook about a potential Adam Thielen trade to Minnesota.
They traded Harrison Phillips last week, a defensive tackle, and
some people think and that might have been to open

(01:10:03):
up a little cap space to get this feeling deal done.
The reporting is that they still have some financial things
to work out to try to make that happen.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Yeah, I think the talk on him was originally that
to the front office, which always suggests to me that, yeah,
we're on board with that idea. We know what the
receiver situation is with them right now. You have Jordan
Edison going to be suspended to start the year, Jalen
Naylor dealing with something justin Jefferson, you don't feel super
confident about him, Like, basically, they're thin at the position
and they're relying on rookies like Lucky Jackson and possibly

(01:10:32):
Ty Felton to find a fit in this But if
you're a team that wants to get to where you
were last year, you kind of can't afford to take
that risk. So why not bring back a guy who
knows Minnesota very well and prove last year that he
can still be a productive receiver? Get him out of Carolina,
get him back with the Viking, see if he's got
one more or maybe two more good years left with him.
It's like a stop gap option that you can count on.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
I love it. He looked good last year for the Panthers. Now,
should the Panthers be trading a way a reliable receiver,
Maybe not, but their receiver room is a lot deeper
and more encouraging than it was previously. And just as
a fan and remembering all the great feeling moments in Minnesota,
I would love to see it, So that feels like
a win win trade. Cam Ward finished a quietly impressive

(01:11:17):
preseason twelve for twenty two for one hundred and fifty
two yards and I really like what Brian Callahan, his coach,
said after the game, just that it just doesn't seem
too big for him, and sometimes he's a little late
on his throes, but his arm makes up for it.
That's me talking. He had this deep out where he's
throwing the ball off his own goal line to Van Jefferson,

(01:11:39):
where he layers it over the underneath defender but with
enough speed to get it to Jefferson on the sideline,
and man, he just whips that thing in there, shook,
and I have think I thought he's had a really
nice preseason for a number one overall draft pick. I'm
just even more excited to watch him this year.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
I think whips is a great way to describe this,
because that is his throwing emotion in a nutshell. And
on the broadcast, they were talking about how Tennessee's coaches
have tried to get him to step into his throws more,
but I think he has enough arm strength, talent and
accuracy to be able to get away with that in
most instances. Like that's a very accurate throw that's essentially
almost off platform because he's just like kind of floating
backward and just lets it rip by whipping it. And

(01:12:22):
it wasn't the only time he made a throw like that.
There was another throw in this game where he was rolling,
I believe, to his right and you're watching it from
the sideline view on the broadcast, and I see I
think it was Julius Chestnut. It came open on the backside,
and I'm looking at him at Chestnut open, I'm going
I wonder if he's gonna take that throw. If he
sees him, he's gonna take that risk, because a lot
of quarterbacks that's a no no, don't throw across your body.
Ward sees it and just whips it right over to
him for completion, and I'm like, Dad, is Miami camboard.

(01:12:45):
That is the guy that could elevate this team as
a whole. This should be your franchise quarterback. I think
it's going to take time for them to get better
around him. It's gonna take multiple years. But I do
think even off of this preseason action, that he gave
them a very encouraging sample size that they can take
with positive momentum into the season, even if the season
ends up being a pretty trying one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Yeah, he just he just looks like a guy that's ready,
and that's why I'm ready to give him the honor
that it's time for the Who Delivered presented by Uber
Eat And I am saying that cam Ward delivered for
me because Titans fans are out there, They're wanting more
attention on their number one overall pick. But every time
I hear cam Woard talked about it's like nobody pays

(01:13:22):
attention to cam Ward. Well, if everyone's saying that people
are paying attention and he is delivering, not only on
the field with throws like that. And I think Van Jefferson,
if he was not gonna make that team, and I'm
not sure he was a lock, he might have made
it in that game because he went three for one
oh three, I think a crazy stat line in that game.

(01:13:42):
I wonder if Tyler Lockett's like, definitely definitely on this team.
I don't know. I mean, someone's gotta be the odd
man out here, but ultimately it's not cam Ward. And
in a week that you got into a fight with
Jeffrey Simmons, I mean, nothing says more I'm not afraid
of nobody than getting in a fight with Jeffrey Simmons.

(01:14:06):
Maybe the most fearsome like player in the entire league
than that, and cam Wood kind of joked about it,
you know, when they asked him about it the next day, saying,
you know, what did you learn? I learned that Jeffrey
Simmons is a strong man and Jeffrey Simmons has reportedly
looked good. So yeah, shout out to cam Ward. Can't
wait to watch him. Week one. That was who Delivered

(01:14:26):
presented by Uber Eats. When football makes you hungry, Get
game day Deals presented by Uber Eats, the official on
demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order Now, Cowboys and
Falcons played Joe Milton's Revenge. Actually played pretty well in
this game. They did have an injury. Jaden Blue, their
running back, hurt his ankle. Another injured player, Trayvon Diggs,

(01:14:52):
was activated by the Cowboys on Sunday, So that's a
really good sign that maybe he could be ready for
the beginning of the season, or at least close to it.
They are going to carry him on the fifty three
man roster. That's really interesting And I don't know, Shook,
if you saw the Micah Parsons situation, how would you
describe how he was on the sideline.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
He was taking a cista on a training table, which, look,
don't get me wrong, if you're tired, you're a little
exhausted from like participating, a training table is a great
place to take a nap. Sure, except he hasn't been
participating in weeks because of all the drama that we've
already covered at nauseum. But yeah, he didn't look very
engaged in that sideline, so I think we continue to
monitor that, which is kind of getting stranger by the week.

(01:15:38):
I am very bummed about the Jaden Blue news because
I think this running back room for as low of
a ceiling as it has, or at least I'm a
pessimist when I look at them. I was very intrigued
by his role in this, and it was interesting to
see how they divided up the reps in this game.
You saw a lot of Deuce Fawn, you saw a
lot of Jaden Blue. He doesn't have He's not the
type of guy that like checks the old Chris Westling

(01:15:59):
box of like that guy's got the juice in the preseason,
but there's moments where I'm like, Okay, I could see
him playing a key role in this offense, possibly as
a third downback, maybe somebody takes a decent amount of carries,
so as we try to figure out how they're gonna,
you know, order up this this running back room and
whether Miles Sanders is actually cut out for it or not.
Hearing that, knowing that he got hurt, it's a bummer

(01:16:19):
for me because I think that this is just one
of the more intriguing position groups all beat a low ceiling,
And especially after a game in which Joe Milton finally
played well, I was very happy to see his week
by week progression. I was like, oh, okay, now he's
actually knows how to throw a fade he didn't know
how to for two previous weeks. He's reading coverages, he's
making decisions, he's not just making plays with his legs.

(01:16:41):
That was very encouraging to see. But as it is
with the Cowboys, usually Kanoff just have nothing but good news,
even after a preseason game.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
Right they mean that. The Diggs news to me is
a big one. Jalen guy in there talking their left tackle,
that he might be back a little earlier than people think.
So these are stories we will be tracking. Mazzie Smith,
their former first pick, was out there deep into the game,
which indicates they might be cutting him For the Falcons.
I keep feeling like I just don't have much on them.
It's partly because they don't play any of their meaningful players.

(01:17:13):
But I did see you know, Atlanta Falcons dot com
right that. You know. Pearce and Walker are both not
expected to start. There are two rookies, Jalen Walker and
James Pierce, and it seems like James Pierce is actually
a head of Jalen Walker, who's overcoming an injury, so
he might be fourth in line at edge. Not anything

(01:17:35):
to panic about, but something to track. You would want
that to progress sooner than later during the season. Raheem
Morris also confirmed Kayleb McGarry their tackle is going to
be out for a significant time. We hit that earlier
on the show, but you know, confirmed by the coach
that he's going to be out.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
Awhile.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
Meanwhile, Giants Patriots. You know, if there's one thing that
the Giants love, it's seeing the flying l of the
Patriots helmet coming their way. Forty two Giants, ten Patriots.
They put a hurt on the Patriots backups. Now they
had you know, mostly backups in but so did the Giants,

(01:18:14):
and the Giants backups look good. You know, Jackson dark
comes in look pretty good again. Like Ryan Table was
so mad when Jalen Hyatt dropped his precious quarterbacks pass
in this game.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
He dropped two of them and then he finally caught one.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Like was this this week? It seems so long ago.
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
He dropped two great throws by Jackson Dart, Darkns knocked out.
Jamis comes in, first throw touchdown pass the Jalen hy
Hyatt who finally catches a contested ball, Like I was
just like, ah, come on, man, Dart looks very good,
like very capable of handling that job. It's gonna be
a situation to monitor, especially if they get off to
a slow start. Like I know, there was a lot

(01:18:54):
of like consternation uncertainty about him going into the draft,
and I totally understand that. And it's not that I
was entirely on board, but I was into they Oh man,
I see what the Giants saw. Now. I know it's
only the preseason, but I'm very encouraged to see what
he looks like in an NFL game of the regular season,
because I liked what I saw throughout this preseason.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
And it's gonna be such a different offense with him,
and you just see that, like some people are like, well,
but he's not testing the ball downfield. There's not a
lot of like super pro concepts. Like it's like, yeah,
that's what it's gonna look like when he actually plays too.
That's what you do is build the offense around your quarterback.
He's a rookie. Just feels like they're wasting time with
Russell Wilson. I don't think he's gonna make it through,

(01:19:30):
you know, three weeks, because unless they just you know,
pull off some upsets. They have the command one you
could win that. You could win that game certainly, but
if they're not winning, I think he's gone. Might be
the end of Tommy DeVito with the Giants, although he
could always end up on the practice squad. Kim Skataboo
didn't really happen in the preseason. That's fine, but he's
you know, third on the depth chart. I would guess

(01:19:52):
going into the season. Jack Jacksondar did fumble and take
a big hit on his last play. I know a
penalty overturned, you know, it being a fumble, but he
didn't know that as as he was like, you know,
putting his body on the line, So you want you
want to avoid that for the Patriots Ian rapport our guy,
you know, confirm what it seemed pretty clear, which is
that Kyle Duggar is available if you wanted to trade

(01:20:15):
for him. I saw Mike Rabel get all, you know,
up in arms, you know, calling calling someone a rat
that Jalen. You know that Jalen Polk was reported to
be out for the season. Hearing Mike Rabel caution the
media about the dangers of like unnamed sources, like, hmm, Like,

(01:20:35):
I I sure see a lot of like pro Mike
Rabel stuff every time he's looking for a job or
trying to keep his job that are attributed to unnamed sources.
So it's just like, calm down. Let let people report
things if they're factual. He wasn't questioning the factual nature
of Jalen Polk being out for the season. I don't
know what more to say about the Patriots other than

(01:20:56):
h Caleb on chas On hadn't mentioned him on this show.
Has had a great camp, a great preseason, had a
sneaky great year for the Raiders last year, and I
think has passed Keyon White on the depth chart where
he's ahead of them at edge. They're decent at edge.
Up front, you got Harold Landry too, Like they have
a pretty fun front. But it is interesting Keon White
now kind of playing with the backups. Keep an eye

(01:21:17):
kleb On Chason might be having kind of like a
mid career former first round pick renaissance, kind of Dante
Fowler style like the Jaguars, where yeah, disappointment for the
Jaguars but ends up being like a really solid pro
who has a longer career. That would be the hope
for him.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
Another comp maybe like Leonard Floyd, Like give you much
of Chicago's.

Speaker 1 (01:21:36):
On who's ahead of those two young guys in Atlanta,
He's one of the guys ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
Of the team. Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:40):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
Where do we see this Patriots receiver room shaking out?
Now that we've got this information in a full preseason
worth of you know, tap.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
So Efton Chisholm, their undrafted rookie is making this team
and could have a decent role on the team. He
really looked that good in the preseason. Stefan Diggs, I
think has had a pretty quiet maybe concerning preseason in
camp in terms of he does not look like a
number one receiver. But I think it's the Mario Douglas,

(01:22:08):
It's Stefan Diggs, It's Mac Collins as as their top
three receivers, and then Kyle Williams who got concussed in
this game, and Chisholm are probably four and five. I
think they're going with like the younger guys here and
we'll see. I don't you know, Jalen Polk is hurt,
and I think maybe the forty nine ers trade for
Kendrick Bourne. That would make a lot of sense to me.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
Yep, does Javon Baker somebody that you end up seeing
getting like practice squadded.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
And maybe like someone would pick him up. He's fast,
they could keep him as a special teamer, but he's
he's further down down the list. I'm more interested in
the offensive line, Like, yeah, Cole Strange might be available,
Like anyone that Bill Belichick drafted, they're available. Like Rabele
just wants to get rid of all these guys. I mean,
like it's crazy they're trading Douggard there. They're gonna be

(01:22:56):
starting potentially a fourth round rookie Craig Woodson, who a
lot of people thought that was a reach, but he's
going to play like I don't know if Garrett Bradbury's
starting that offensive line. Their offensive line is easily the
most concerning part of the team that it's not enough
better compared to a year ago. And let's get to
the Steelers and the Panthers. We are wrapping up our
recaps with bad news. Derek Harmon, their first round pick,

(01:23:20):
sprained his knee in the preseason finale and he is
going to be out four to six weeks. Might not
be ir but we'll see. They have had a rookie
shook Yah Yah Black play pretty well behind him. So
I still think they feel good about their depth up front. Really,
their concerns are on the offensive side. I do not
think they have a ton of concerns about the defense.

Speaker 2 (01:23:42):
I thought it was interesting in this game that they
played this week that you know, against the Panthers, that
Pat Freyermuth was getting like a ton of snaps outside
of the starters.

Speaker 1 (01:23:50):
I think that might have been a situation where he
hadn't previously because he was coming off an injury, and
that does happen sometimes where you want to get a
guy more work who hasn't before. But they are deep
at tight end, so your tinfoil hat might not be
that crazy. Like John new Smith, Darnol Washington is he
is he third in line now where they showcasing him
for a trader could certainly get something for Pat Fryarmouth.

Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
Yeah. I just even his body language kind of suggested
that he was a little frustrated with the fact that
he was out there. He was just that's interesting. That
made me raise an eyebrow.

Speaker 1 (01:24:21):
They are healthy at tackle. Troy Fiotanu and Broderick Jones
I think had good camps like step Forward Footano. They're
really hoping it is going to be good. But Proderc
Jones was healthy. He's moved back to left tackle where
he used to play before. So their offensive line is
really important to protect Aaron Rodgers because no one really
stepped up at that wide receiver battle by all accounts,

(01:24:42):
if you average all the reporting, like Scottie Miller might
be their second best.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
Wide receiver, which is middle catch this game.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
Right, Calvin Austen has been hurt Aaron Rodgers like Scotty Miller,
they should be looking for wide receivers. The Panthers apparently
aren't if they're going to trade Adam Thieling. They rested
all their backups in this game, and so really my
my biggest takeaway from this this camp was I'm excited
for the Tetuoa McMillan era, and I think the Panthers
are too.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
The t mac era. Let it begin sands, the Adidas shoes,
the sneakers.

Speaker 3 (01:25:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
There was an injury in this game, or maybe it
was in practice, I'm not sure which it was. Princely
Uman Miellen hurt his shoulder hitting Darnault Washington, which is
probably going to become like a really common way to
get injured, just like throwing your shoulder into the mount.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
Into Mount Washington. Yes, right, of course.

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
I mean I loved Darnaut Washington. And so that's two
of their young pass rushers who are out. We don't
know how long the injury is going to be for
Uman Miellen, but Nick Gorton is also out with the
collapse long. They have a lot of questions on their defense,
but I feel pretty good about their offense and where
they are at. I feel good about where we're at. Shooky,

(01:25:55):
we did it. I don't know how many games are
in the preseason. I could do the math forty nine, right, yeah,
because you know sixteen I like that, and then one
for the Hall of Fame. We're done, it's over.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
We did it, Ceciliano. I think it was who tweeted
out the table games and then said like two hundred
and seventy eight regular season games or something like that.
The grind truly begins now, Sicko season. It may seem
to be over, but it's actually only just begun because
we have eighteen weeks of football all of us after
this dead week. Also, at one last comp for you,
since we just talked about it, Scotty Miller, New Age,

(01:26:27):
Jeff Janis no one.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
Channis is like a big strang just kidding. I'm just kidding, buddy,
you know. I see the comp though, and that just
Rogers likes it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
Random receivers that Aaron Rodgers likes.

Speaker 1 (01:26:40):
Yes, I like that. Jeff Janis caught one of his
hail Mary's right, Yes he does. That was the best
Jeff Janis moment. So you called it a dead week,
I'm gonna take that personally. Is actually going to be
one of the best weeks of NFL Daily content of
the season. We have also forties and free agents coming out.
We're wrapping up our division previews. We're gonna preview the
whole season. So that's actually the next show that you're

(01:27:01):
going to hear in your feet as a forties and
free agent, and so we'll hit any news from Monday
with that, me and Daniel Jeremiah, but then Jordan Rodrig
myself Patrick Claiban are going to be there later in
the week. We're going to have some awards previews. I
love doing that. I'm going to have a special guest.
Very excited to have Nick, Right, you got to come

(01:27:22):
on Nick now that I'm saying your name for our
annual over underdraft. That is one of my favorite episodes
of the entire season. So we are going daily throughout
the next week leading into our regular week one schedule,
which you are going to be a huge part of Shook.
You know, you're carrying doing Yeoman's work on the primetime game.
So I will see you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:42):
Then, but looking forward to it, and I know a
lot of people are looking forward to the over Under show.
That's one of the favorites.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
It's the least talked about, most amazing streak in sports
three straight years. I have gone undefeated on the over
under picks going into the season. See if we can
turn it into four. That is it for today's NFL Daily.
I was waiting for that music and honking too much
at the end of like an hour and a half show,

(01:28:11):
but these Sundays have been delicious. Shook, we did it.
It's the last one, five weeks. It's over, but look back.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Gregg Rosenthal

Popular Podcasts

Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2

Dateline NBC

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Preseason Takeaways from All 32 Teams