NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Camp Buzz: Murray is Vikings QB1, Puka Concerns and Spicy Joint Practices

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Gregg Rosetnahl and Jourdan Rodrigue get you caught up on all the news from training camps around the NFL including Kyler Murray being names the starter for the Vikings, injury updates for Puka Nacua and Coby Bryant, an update on the Browns QB battle between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson and more! NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm J.J. Zachary Eisen, host of the award-winning late-round podcast.

Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we love a quarterback battle that ends early. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here at the Bolt in El Segundo, the Chargers training facility where we watch practice on this very Tuesday. and you're going to hear our interviews and our takeaways from Mike McDaniel on Wednesday show. But for now, Jordan, what we're doing, yes, Jordan Rodriguez with me. Hello. We're going to do a little camp buzz.

Might be named Daily Buzz in the season. Wow, who thought of that? That's the name that you wanted. So what camp buzz is, we're just going to get you up to date on all the news around the league. And, yeah, like I said, we'll tell you everything that happened at Chargers Camp on our next show. And I alluded to it off the top. Kyler Murray is your Vikings quarterback. I find the timing really interesting because it comes off of three or four days

where the general reporting around Kyler Murray and this Vikings quarterback battle was like, man, it'd be nice if Kyler would just take this job because he actually hasn't been playing that well. He's thrown some groaners. J.J. McCarthy's had his moments. If you just didn't know that much between the two of them, even though Kyler's been getting way more snaps with the first team, you would say, yeah, it's Kyler, but it's kind of either way, like they're both struggling.

And yet, why do you think Kevin O'Connell chose this Tuesday to declare it over as we expected from the beginning? To me, some of it, I would think, has to do with preparing for this first preseason game and really getting your roster plan ready for that, who's going to play and how much they're going to play, who's not going to play, and how much they're going to play, and how much they're not going to play, that in itself would be a huge tell

and again continue to perpetuate the story of this quarterback battle, which I don't think that organization really wants at this point. But it really would be a very, very clear indicator either way if they hadn't already announced it when people are

breathlessly counting preseason snaps and who does what? And is Kyler, is he even playing? Is he held out? And does that mean he's the starter? I think that this makes sense to me for that for that reason, what I wish I would have seen is one of the two guys, to your point, actually sees this job and clearly run away with it. I do wonder for a team that you're right, I think probably does just want this story to go away,

that if anything, it's annoying to hear people being like, JJ won this day. And it's just like, what are we doing here? We know it's going to be Kyler Murray's job. J.J. McCarthy certainly hasn't played well enough to change their mind. And what Kevin O'Connell said at the podium was it's a projection. but now we've seen him in this offense despite what people are saying and these are my words, not Kevin O'Connell's words.

Kevin O'Connell said that we think he fits this offense. We now know he fits this offense. We've seen him fits this offense. And ultimately it's like we're wasting our time giving first team reps to J.J. McCarthy. I wanted to ask you if you believe Kevin O'Connell that J.J. McCarthy has a future with the organization. I think he can say that until the right offer comes along if it ever does.

What about just like a sixth round pick or something in late August? Like basically nothing, but just let's get rid of them. I don't really want to. I don't really, that's not really my forte is assigning value to people. But I really think that like. But he's going to have to. They're going to have to. They're going to have to.

And my thing to sort of circle back on on what you're talking about there for a second, Greg, is like they want to install a lot of offense too. you can install actually what your offense is going to be. That's what teams are doing right now. The first two weeks of training camp, that's all fun and there's fans there. And it's a really, really cool time. This happens right now in this third-ish week, right before the first preseason game, where you're actually, you're not going to show your offense in the preseason,

but you're actually uploading your entire playbook in totality to this offense. And if you're splitting reps between two players, you can't actually functionally do that. And when he says about when he talks about, you know, efficiency and and it just doesn't make sense to keep doing it this way. Like, yeah, absolutely. I understand that. Do I believe that long term J.J. McCarthy is going to be a part of this Vikings team?

No, I don't. I don't believe that even though I do think there are some people in the building who still want to see how to make that work. However, I don't think they're just going to give this guy away. Okay, that's why I asked. And when I say a sign of value, because you're saying if the right value comes along. Well, I don't know what it is. Right. I mean, to me, there's two different types of ways that they would handle it.

Sure, they would trade them for a good draft pick at the end of training camp if someone gave them a good offer, let's say a future third or something like that. I find that unlikely to happen. It's possible because, you know, top quarterback picks, it happens. It's possible. Or do they look at it? And I think this is where it could go, that we have the backup quarterback in Carson Wentz that we really like, and I've heard some reporters, including on Purple Daily that I listen to say, like,

Carson Wentz probably played like the cleanest of like knowing the offense of this camp. And here we are again. Right. We have our backup in Carson Wentz that will take the best offer we can get for JJ McCarthy, and that might be a future fifth. We will find out, and that won't be the last time we hear. I think you have to do it this time of year, too, because you, if you're going to, again, install your entire offense for your starting quarterback, Kyler Murray,

you got to make sure the vibes are good. The vibes to start camp. The vibes to start camp were not good. Did not feel good coming from at least one side of that whole operation. That is more what I mean that they might just decide it's not worth the distraction in their minds of the questions. And let's just rip the band-aid off. And it would be interesting to see who went after him. This would be a pretty logical place to do it.

The Los Angeles Chargers where his former coach has tried to rehabilitate a, a top quarterback pick before in Trey Lance, who is here as the backup, but not really lighting it up at training camp from what I've heard in general. So more in this space later. Okay, it's a news update show. And unfortunately, at this time of year,

a lot of the news updates are injuries. So we're going to go through a lot of the ones, I think, are the most interesting. Pukunakua goes first because he left the joint practice between the Rams and the Cowboys on Tuesday with an injury that Sean McVeigh didn't, want to guess what it was, but he left, but it's Pukunakua. We'll always keep an eye on that. Miles Garrett also left with, or didn't practice at all, with swelling in his knee. That doesn't

sound great. I'm sure they're being careful. You don't want to throw him out there in a joint practice, but just swelling, and he's had some issues so far this week, but I bring Pukob first because Adam Schaefter mentioned Pukkahua as one of a few NFL players who could face discipline in terms of a suspension. He also mentioned Josh Jacobs specifically, Adam Schefter, that is, as someone who could still face NFL discipline. This was the most

on front street that any main reporter like that has actually thrown out the possibility that Puka could be suspended by the NFL. If Schaefter's throwing it out there, I tend to think it's happening. And that is surprising to me because you just hadn't heard a lot about this. Yeah.

And it's, well, it is something the team has sort of been bracing with Allerick Jackson as well, their left tackle to see they didn't know what was maybe going to come or not come, but the fact that they were, that they didn't know clearly that something wouldn't come made me feel like maybe something will, you know. And so that's something absolutely to keep an eye on right now, less so than, you know, any possible injury or anything like that. I mean, this is, this is the biggest subplot of the Rams start to their season, even more so than the superstar talent that they have brought in. Yeah, keep an eye on this because the NFL generally announces these suspensions.

They're a little unpredictable by mid to late August, which we're in. Sometimes they've announced it in early August, but usually they don't, you know, wait until the last week before the season starts and the Rams are starting in Australia. They're not leaving eight days early like San Francisco, but I'm sure the Rams would like to know. and I'm sure Netflix is hoping he's available for that game, but Adam Schaefter throwing it out there makes me think that he might not be out there for week one. Usually he at least lobs up the signal, you know,

that something's marinating. The thing with Miles Garrett, okay, I don't ever want to doubt, I hope he's not injured, I hope he's not, you know. But wouldn't it be interesting if, you know, these two teams, they want to get some really productive work in, right? Goods on goods against an opponent. they want to really see defensive structure and offensive structure. Wouldn't that be something maybe you talk about with the other coach?

Because I was just at a Rams practice and Miles Garrett single-handedly blew it up. So it's like the old Aaron Donald days. So I'm just, you know, I'm not saying anything. I'm just wondering, would that be something? The Cowboys are like, we don't want that smoke. Tyler Gitin's trying to build some confidence. But also like their defense, the Rams want to see what this defense actually could also look like, you know, without. I just think maybe you get your most functional work done.

If you're a superstar pass rusher who is absolutely destroying your practice script on days he is available like Aaron Donald used to do, I don't know. I would have that conversation. I'm not saying it happened. I would personally have that conversation. Absolutely fair. And I don't know if Garrett even makes the show, if not for the Puka connection. But it's interesting. I love the joint practices out there.

and I believe there was a report. 49ers Titans had four fights within the first 10 minutes of practice. That's great. That's great for everyone there. But as I mentioned, Josh Jacobs could be suspended as well. So that's something to watch because he hasn't been healthy either. He is out for at least another week with a knee injury. He is an every other year guy.

He often gets hurt. So he might not be a guy that the Packers can rely on. Certainly not if he's suspended early in the year. Michael Parsons helped to illuminate his. his recovery from his knee surgery with our Stacey Dales and Brian Baldinger saying that week six against the Cowboys, not so coincidentally, I doubt, would possibly be the very earliest that Micah Parsons would be back. And wouldn't that be delicious? I think that's a Sunday night football game if he gears up his rehab to get back for that game. But he won't be back until then, according to Michael Parsons, who just was a delight.

in terms of building up himself with our friends. And I don't even think it's just about past rush. I think about it's commanding the defensive front. Like the way I set it up, I can dictate the slides, know where the slides going, understand protections. I think I'm above IQ'd in every Russian league. I don't like, I've learned from the best between Dan Zim, Halfley.

Like I really understand football at a way better level. So it allows me to, you know, use those abilities that I haven't seen no one else do. I love the take. the confidence for Michael Parsons. And the reason I threw that in the show, other than it's a fun soundbite, is that I remember he did this event with Miles Garrett and they were on the stage. I don't, did you see that this summer?

He more or less said, I'm smarter than you, Miles Garrett. Like, I'm not. I did not see this. No. In the nicest of ways, he was, he was like, I don't just get there with athleticism. I'm the smartest edge in the league. I do it with this, this and that. And some people aren't just going out there and doing it.

And Miles Garrett was like, excuse me back and forth. And I was just like, I, you know, generally someone that calls themselves the smartest. We have some high profile examples are not the smartest. So maybe it's not true. But I still just like it. I like Michael Parsons. You know who I bet loves that is Jerry Jones. Yes.

Yeah. Another self-proclaimer. Another. Yeah. I bet he'll also love, no lie, if Michael Parsons come back for that game. Just the attention on that would be one of the games of the year. But he will not be back for a while. More injury news. Nate Wiggins, the Ravens Cornerback, carted off practice.

We'll see. Again, carts don't always mean the same thing, but we'll track that because he's really important for their defense at cornerback. I thought he was a young improving player. Cade Mays, one of our favorite free agent pickups, he's the center for the Detroit Lions is going to be back in about eight to ten weeks after a wrist injury. So that puts him out for the first month plus of the season. And more bad Lions news. His backup, which in theory is juice Scruggs, not a great option from the Texans, also hurt right now.

Isaiah Pacheco sprained his MCL. He hasn't been healthy in years. And then Dan Campbell indicated that Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph, their all-pro safety tandem, would both not be back likely until early in the regular season that they would miss some regular season time. That is not a surprise when it comes to Brian Branch coming off major knee surgery.

But we haven't really heard about what, happening with Kirby Joseph. So just a bunch of bad news for one team. And sometimes it's not who you face, but when you face them, the lions, you know, might be a good week one opponent. Yeah. Well, and the whole talk about them this year is, is can they get their offense kind of humming the way that we're used to, and especially the run game humming that we're used to even with the departure of David Montgomery. When you're missing your center and the offensive line was retooled a little bit, when you're missing the guy in the pivot, basically, in that role. That's really tough.

Cade Mays, we loved him for a reason. He was really held that Panthers line together last year in a really positive way, tough as they come to. So that's unfortunate. And then the questions about this lion's defense just won't, we'll not go away until they're healthy. Oh, and by the way, losing, you know, a corner for the foreseeable, well, they cut him, Terry on Arnold.

And, and, you know, you're losing depth there with him. And then you're also losing guys to injuries like this. My question still, what is this defense going to look like? and how are you going to affect the opposing offense? Because it's just one thing after another with this group. I think it's been a good camp for them up front. But once you get to the linebacker and the secondary is a mess, and you know who plays them?

Week one, this is off the top of my head. And so I really hope it's not wrong. Your New Orleans Saints. Tyler Shuck, baby! Yes. Could be lighten it up. That's back and forth. That's a lot of points.

I see a lot of points in that game, partly because the Saints are quite banged up too. Cam Jordan has an injury that could. keep him out into the regular season. We were waiting for an update with Cam Jordan, but it does sound quite significant, and he's going to be out for a while. Hopefully, he's still podcasting in the meantime,

but unfortunately... Maybe we can get an update from him, you know, I hope he is on the... Come on the show. That would be outstanding. The Bears are another team kind of clustering injuries. Kobe Bryant, their safety. We knew he was going to miss a big chunk of the season. We did not know he was likely to miss all the season.

Ben Johnson revealed at the podium after Adam Schefter reported it earlier that Kobe Bryant would be out four to six months and they would hope for him to be back for the playoffs. I think it's one of those situations they didn't know quite how bad it was

until he underwent the surgery. And so that's one of their big free agent pickups. Gone. They're really banged up in the secondary right now. We'll see who comes back if Kyler Gordon comes back. But also on offense, the guy who a lot of people thought

might be their number one receiver this year, Luther Birdie. out roughly a month, according to a local report. I think the hope is that maybe is working his way back, not fully back for week one. It's tough to tell this far out, but some rough news on a few fronts there for the bears. Yeah, I worry less about their offense.

As long as those, you know, their linemen, you know, Ozzie Trapilo obviously still recovering from the injury, but for the most part, I think they'll be okay. They did the thing on the depth chart where they listed three guys at the same position as their starting left tackle, which is kind of like if you have three starting off tackles, I don't think I don't worry as much about their offense. Luther Burden,

it's not having to miss much time. I don't worry too much about that. I think it's a soft tissue, which I am a little worried about with the receiver as explosive as he can be. This defense is where I have a huge concern because they already played the game and took the risk this off season that they were going to continue to predicate their system

with coverage first, and they were going to continue to try to be as aggressive as possible with their coverages despite letting some really good players walk and free agency and then by bringing in a player like Kobe Bryant dictate that way and then try to get these guys up front continuing to develop

and not make a big signing there and not make a big trade there. And so that is a risk already and then it becomes even more of a razor thin line to walk when you do have an injury this significant with a player who is supposed to really make a difference for them. I know. And

it's like the starters are hurt, the backups are hurt. We got a month to go. But man, they've asked Dennis Allen. Is there a substation over there? Right. They've asked Dennis Allen to do a lot and he made up for a lot. That's tough to make that work year after year in the secondary.

But I believe in you. The denisance is on. A few other rookie notes, Kaelin Rutledge, the Texans. The Texans. I was going to say first round pick? Yes. Or was he high second round pick? Either way, he's going to be the starting center for this team.

So learning a new position, that's interesting. Immediately put there, heard from our friend Andrew Siciliano. that Spencer Fano, following up on what we talked about Sunday night, has been declared the left tackle of the Brown. So no more battle there for the top 10 pick. I also spoke too soon about that Brown's quarterback battle, like a day after it sounded like they're just going all Watson. They give it back to Shudor Sanders,

and Todd Munkin is F-bombing both quarterbacks because practice ends with Shudur having two pre-snap penalties and incompletion. And then Watson ended in practice with pre-snap. penalty and an interception and he's just like, Todd Muggan's mad at them all and there's no clarity there. And it serves me right for opening a show with the Browns quarterback. Stupid.

The Patriots made a trade, which I'm only going to mention because he was a third round pick two years ago, Caden Wallace. And now that Drake May draft class only has two guys left of it. Drake May and Marcellus Dyle, who's like an end of the roster guy who might not make the team anyways. That was a disastrous draft class other than Drake May, which is a big other than. finally, or maybe not finally in the news, before our broadcasting news, Quinn and Williams signs a three-year, $106 million contract.

That makes his total time with the Cowboys contract five years, $153 million. We always kill the Cowboys for not getting these deals done early. They got it done very early. So you can do it. They just do it with who they want, which makes me think they don't want it with George Pickens. That's my take. Well, I mean, I think they've been pretty clear about that. But yeah, darn it, if I don't really enjoy a Cowboys offseason once again.

You know, it's like making the right decisions and signing these players who are going to be pillars for them and doing these smart extensions. And they had, you know, really, really strong vibes to open camp. Deck Prescott's out there wearing a T-shirt from the Super Bowl and saying, why wouldn't I talk about this? I want to win a Super Bowl. Why shouldn't I talk about it and try to manifest it? It sounds like the Cowboys defense is playing really well against the Rams. offense and this joint practice as we're recording. And like, I can't wait.

I go up there later this week. I cannot wait to see what there is to see. Regular NFL daily listeners will know that we are the only podcast that declares a winner for every single joint practice. Because we're taping this so soon after all these joint practices or while they're happening, we need to check the tape and check the reports. That, you know, scoring will come later in the week. Yes.

That's a big one. Rams Chargers. That's one of the biggest ones. Nikki Minwari, also taken off the PUP list for the Siak. So some good injury news as well. Maybe he could get back for week one. We will see. Finally, I just want to note, we cover the broadcasters like their players because we spend all Sunday with them. They're important to us. And one of our favorites, a regular NFL Daily guest and around the NFL guest back in the day, Ross Tucker, who I used to work with, is one of the people getting a big bump up because of everything that happened to Tony Romo.

They had some sort of press conference, press availability on Tuesday. The CBS executives, the shadowy league figures, did not say anything about Tony Romo. They said they're just, we're figuring out that situation. Time will tell. Non-committal. But thankfully, we've got a great bench. They've already announced JJ Watt is stepping up to number one. Yeah.

And I think, I think Ian Eagle is the number two spot, which means Ross Tucker. is going all the way up to number two. It's a little confusing to me. Kevin Harlan is there too. How can you choose between Harlan and Eagle 2-3? But either way, Ross Tucker is going to be calling some big-time games. That's quite an elevation. I'd love to see it.

Yes. And Ross, never forget your roots on NFL Daily and the Around the End, and everything else that you've always done really, really well. But that's cool to see. You want to talk roots. I worked with him at NBC Sports Channel, a channel that's so old, it didn't exist because they shut it down. for 10, 15 years.

And now they've actually brought it back and it exists again. That's how long ago Ross Tucker and I did some fantasy nightly show or something. You famously today, famously to you, had Chris Rim, the great reporter for ESPN who covers the Chargers tell you that you looked about

25 or 35. I don't remember which one. But, you know, so you maybe, there you go. You're still holding it down, Greg. That's because I've got like the, like, the height, the body of like a middle school. We had, yeah.

More like an elementary school. schooler, not even the body because it's an elementary schooler plus like 30 pounds. I will tell you, it has been a real treat sitting between you and very, very short football coaches for this. And I feel like I do look about three feet taller and maybe wider as well when I sit in between you guys, but really great for the old ego here. Yeah, Cameron Dicker ruined everything because he's a kicker, but he's a, he's a unit. Everyone on this team is massive. You will hear our interview with him on Wednesday morning.

But yes, I did scout and want to get Sean McVeigh and Mike McDaniel for their height, not just their offensive acumen. Yes, it is all about, it is, it is all a very, very serious calculation in your mind, Greg. So as we've been teasing, our next show in the feed will be from Chargers Camp. You will hear our interviews with Mike McDaniel and Cameron Dicker and some takeaways from the practice. And yeah, it is all, it is all rolling. We're going to be live on, on Thursday. Thursday night at the end of the preseason game. So to check us out then, we might have our winners of the joint practices then.

Until then, Jordan Roderig, what a week. I hope everyone checked out the Power Players with Nick Cayley. That was a great interview. We will see you on Wednesday. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zachary Eisen, host of the award-winning late. Late Round Podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes

tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcasts on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.