NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 78. Biggest 2022 NFL Preseason Takeaways

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers talk about their biggest takeaways from the 2022 NFL Preseason, including some rookie performances that could lead to starting jobs soon

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year.

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. In this episode, we're taking everything that we saw over the last month. Training camp, all the preseason practices, the preseason games, everything. And we're giving you our favorite storylines. All the great player performances, some teams that have really moved the needle up and down.

Who's going to play really well once the regular season comes around? What's going to matter the most? These are our favorite biggest takeaways from the 2022 NFL preseason. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me is Connor Rogers. Let's ring that bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sikma. That is Connor Rogers. It's a Monday morning. It's the Monday after the NFL preseason. Connor, the preseason finally in the rearview mirror.

We're looking ahead to the regular season, but today we're going to do so by taking all the storylines, everything that we watched and learned from the last three or four weeks of training camp and talk about our favorite storylines, what we saw in the preseason and what that means for this rookie class, for teams that are trying to make the playoffs, teams that are trying to make the Super Bowl, everything. We're going to give our favorite storylines that we learned over the last three or four weeks. I know you got a lot of them i got a lot of them too i think it's gonna be a jam-packed show for the good people yeah it's exciting i mean we haven't really talked much pre-season action on this podcast and i think it's it's kind of good to not recap it but sum it up when it's

all over and as you and i sit here and record it the pre-season is officially over and now you have the big picture not the little reactions here and there so you and i each picked a couple storylines that we're more excited to see how they translate into the regular season uh then put a bow on them yeah and it's some of them are going to be rookie related a couple of them are related yeah most for me yeah you and i have chatted a little bit about this like we said we haven't talked a lot of preseason on the show we were kind of we were trying to get over the summer scouting series we're trying to make sure that we finish that and then we wanted to get to some fun drafts that we still had to really finish out the summer so this is this is going to be I think therapeutic for us it's going

to be a big time getting a lot of things off of our chest some of the things that we've been tweeting out on the timeline getting to expand upon a lot of that stuff and uh before we get into it, I got to do everybody's favorite adder. We got to talk to the people about our friends over at Manscaped. Gentlemen, they're talking to you out there. All men strive for gold in their life, right? That is the absolute standard. That's what we're going for. Gold medals, gold watches, gold everything in your life.

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shipping using the promo code NFLSE. It is time that you get the finer things in life give yourself a platinum package for your platinum package connor i will uh i will give you the honors here my friend what is what a guy what's the first thing that we want to talk about here today on our pre-season storylines and things that we're looking forward to going into the regular season for me it's kenny pickett i just man baby you know what for real for me absolutely qb1 um in last year's draft you only got to go in the first round and you know what i think a lot of people because of his limitations kind of underestimated kenny pickett this summer and i'm not saying he's going to go out there and have the arm of mahomes, the mobility of a Kyler or Lamar, but he does the little things right. And when you're on a roster like the Steelers, where you're throwing to Deontay Johnson or

George Pickens having a really, really nice summer, Chase Claypool, Najee Harris, Pat Friermuth. I mean, a lot of Calvin Austin. They're so deep at the skill position. I just look at this Trevor and go, man, you don't have to start him, right? You don't have to start him because it's the old adage of you can go from Trubisky to Pickett very easily. It's very hard to go from Pickett to Trubisky. But I have to say I am very intrigued by Kenny Pickett being the quarterback of this team, not Mitch Trubisky. But I have to say, I am very intrigued by Kenny Pickett being the quarterback of this team,

not Mitch Trubisky. I think that Kenny is a guy that, very much like Derek Carr and why he got a lot of those comps, understands how to distribute the ball to his playmakers and allow them to do the rest. And I don't know if I could say that about Trubisky, really, with confidence. But with Kenny, even with his limitations, he can do that. the rest. And I don't know if I could say that about Trubisky really to be complete with confidence, but with Kenny, even with his limitations, he can do that. And I think that's

enough for a Steelers roster. That is really, really good. I have some questions about their offensive line. Of course, I still have questions about pick it overall as a rookie quarterback, but I like what I've seen from him this summer. And I think it's going to be a very, very short amount of time before he is the dude under center there I think you made a really great point there at the beginning when you said you can go from Trubisky to pick it but it would get it gets really awkward to go from picket to Trubisky so because of that I would probably still tell you that Trubisky is the starter for the Steelers andisky is the starter for the Steelers and maybe should be the starter for the Steelers.

Now, again, I can't say that I've seen every single practice rep, every single practice report from Steelers media and how everything is going there, but it sounds like it's a pretty close competition. Even for the people who are caping for Kenny Pickett to be the QB1 right away, it sounds like it's been decently close. I think that we've seen that when we see some of the preseason games for the Steelers. If it's been close, I'm still starting Trubisky.

I'm going to still start Trubisky when the season starts. He looked really nice last year, although in a very limited backup role when he was with the Buffalo Bills. And this is also a guy who, look, the Steelers might be able to have their cake and eat it too. Because if Trubisky looks good, even for a somewhat extended period of time, he continues to have trade value, even though you know that Pickett's probably the guy who is going to be the future of the franchise with you drafting him in the first round.

There's just not to me. The Steelers aren't in this place where they have to figure out what they have in Kenny Pickett right like I don't think the Steelers are going to be bad enough and we're going to get into this conversation a little bit more with a couple of other teams I don't think the Steelers are about to be bad to where you've got to say to yourself this is a strong quarterback class coming up in theory we've got to know what we have in kenny pickett every step of the way because we need to know if we want to jump in on this

quarterback class i think the steelers are going to be a really good football team every mike tomlin team always is at least to this point has it finished with a below 500 record so with that in mind again like i'm kind of with you and i, I'm siding more towards the argument that you made at the beginning of, of your, your conversation there. I'm going to go with Trubisky probably, but it is going to be intriguing if they go with Kenny Pickett right off the bat,

or when they decide to bring him in, how short is the leash for Trubisky? How much are they really Jones in to get Kenny Pickett out there? Because going into the final week of the preseason, he had the highest quarterback rating. I think among all rookies is 138.6, which is QBR and no other rookie quarterback had a, well, I will say no other rookie quarterback who we think is going to be a

potential starter, you know, Sam, how I'm a leak. Well, it's a Desmond Ritter, somebody like that. Nobody had a QBR of over a hundred. So pick it's been playing really well this preseason given all the division snaps that he's had. He has. And, you know, they have a pretty tough schedule where it's hard to sit there and go,

oh, like this is where it's going to be Pickett time. They'll move off of Trubisky. And, you know, because they open up, they're in a brutal division, so that makes the schedule very hard. But opening up in Cincinnati and then getting New England, who's always very well coached on defense, the Browns, maybe you

could move to them the fourth game of season when the Jets come to town, but you play the Bills the next week. It's not really a situation like that, Trevor. You're right where once you commit to pick it, whether that's to start the season or at some point or end the season, you're two feet in that you're swimming with the bad

water and the good water. You're in. That's it. You're in. The good you're swimming with the bad water and the good water. You're in. That's it. You're in. So the good thing is here for the Steelers and why I brought this up as a topic and why I'm watching so closely, he has looked the part this summer. Which is what you want to see. It's definitely what you want to see.

Look, I'll keep it along the same lines and I'll talk about another rookie quarterback. I'll talk about Desmond Ritter in Atlanta. I know there's a lot of whisperings and maybe those whispers have turned into regular level voices and maybe even some shouts through a megaphone to potentially go to desmond ritter right off the bat this was my quarterback one coming into this past draft class and he was my qb1 because i thought that he just understood the position so well his translation to the nfl maybe he wasn't going to be a full-time face of the franchise kind of a guy but he was somebody whose floor to me

was so high because of the things that he already did really really well he understood the position very well played with a ton of confidence over the last two years at Cincinnati the mechanics have become so flawless it felt like from his toes all the way up through his shoulders and and how that throwing motion was releasing the ball exactly where he wanted to go and i think you saw that a lot over his last two years so now he goes to atlanta right and he's in a quarterback competition sort of competition with marcus mariotta who former number two overall pick himself from the 2015 nfl draft the guy who had a lot of promise went through a ton of offensive coordinators in tennessee no consistency there had a lot of injuries ended up playing with the las ve Vegas Raiders last year and looked good right

and I think that that's why he's got this opportunity to start for albeit a team that's probably not going to make the playoffs but another starting shot nonetheless Desmond Ritter comes in this preseason and I think he looked pretty damn good man he had a 70.9 overall passer uh passing grade in our in our grades this season or sorry in this preseason had an elite pff passing grade in that second game of the season in which he looked pinpoint accurate against the new york jets when the falcons were playing against the jets it's not like ritter has not come with his mistakes he certainly has but he's definitely shown you areas of his game where he's got a lot of promise,

especially when it comes to working with things very on script, when the offensive line holds up, when the play actions working well, he is able to see the field. I think really well from a pre snap perspective, which doesn't always happen as a rookie. And because of that, you're seeing him very confident.

He's stepping into throws. He knows where to look. The ball's coming out of his hand very quickly. All of these things are there for Desmond Ritter to, to think, okay, stepping into throws he knows where to look the ball's coming out of his hand very quickly all of these things are there for desmond ritter to to think okay if you play him in the regular season maybe you're not really throwing him into the to the wolves at a negative standpoint yeah i think desmond ritter would still struggle if we got to the regular season but it's not like it would be hopelessly struggling like you would be ruining him or something i think that his processing is to the point where he is beyond that kind of damage to

what would be a really nice start to his nfl career the reason why i bring a desmerator up though is it's pretty entrenched right now that mariotta is going to start for this team but should he long term I'm not sure because I don't expect this Falcons team to be very good this year I think the Falcons are heading towards a top 10 pick in the I'd say top five NFL draft I'm kind of being nice could very well be in the top five could very well even be in the top three if If that's the case, you got to know what you have in Desmond Ritter, right? Like you've got to play him because of what I brought up earlier. This quarterback class has a chance to be something that's special. And Atlanta does not want to be in a situation like they were in 2020, right?

No, 2021, where Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Mack Jones, Trevor Lawrence, all these quarterbacks were kind of there for the taking, not exactly for Atlanta at three because there were three quarterbacks off the board, but they ended up not taking a quarterback at four, and they ended up, I don't think, getting aggressive to be in the top three or anything like that because they thought they had the situation with Matt Ryan now things soured because of their involvement with Deshaun Watson I get all that stuff but

ultimately you don't want to be if you're the Falcons the team that passed on a quarterback at the top of the 2021 NFL draft and 2023 if 2023 ends up being really really good so I just think that all that was kind of a word vomit to say I'm excited about Desmond Ritter Desmond Ritter showed really nice promise in the preseason he's understanding the game really well it does not look too big for him he looks like a pro already and you gotta know what you get you're getting with Desmond Ritter if this quarterback class is going to manifest itself a year from now you've got to know what you've got and whether or not you want to dip into that. So that's kind of my Desmond Ritter take from the preseason.

And phenomenal. I completely agree. I look at that situation. Listen, you and I, pretty majority of the time, our job focus is on the direction of NFL franchises, right? Big picture. It's always good when you can put a team in a bucket, one way or the other. It could be a team that's clearly rebuilding, a team that's clearly contending, and there's a lot of categories that go in the middle of that. I struggle in this era of Falcons football to figure out what they want to be. And I think that, you know, it's pretty clear

that with Matt Ryan gone now, a guy that you didn't want to, you know, do any wrong by for how important he was to that franchise, that they are leaning towards a future where their franchise quarterback of the future is most likely not on the roster right now. It's not Marcus Mariota. I don't see this resurgence, this Ryan Tannehill resurgence, you know, with Arthur Smith there. I think Ritter, a guy that I wasn't very hot on to be optimistic, whether how people feel about him, you're right, Trevor, you need to know. And he started for four years in college.

This isn't Trey Lance coming out of the FCS. This isn't Malik Willis coming out of Liberty. This guy played for four years at Cincinnati and played at some big-time football games. See what you have. Find out what you have in him. And if he blows away your expectations, really only throwing to

hopefully a healthy Drake London and obviously Kyle Pitts, then you if he blows away those expectations, you're going to win more games than obviously somebody like me thinks that they'll be picking in the top five, where then you're going to build around him. And listen, even if it doesn't work out in that two to three year window, he flashes this year, but hey, it didn't work out after that. You at least gave it a fair shot.

You didn't just, you know, wing it. So I really want to know what the Falcons are and playing Marks Mariota. That doesn't tell meota. That doesn't tell me anything. It doesn't tell me anything at all. And, and, you know, when I say that they're a team that I expect to be picking in the top five for Falcons fans listening, I don't really think that's a bad thing for your franchise. It's because this is a team that knows they need to reset at quarterback. And this in our eyes is a pretty good quarterback class where even when you get past CJ Stroud or Bryce Young,

there's guys that could potentially be top five quarterback picks this year with a good season. So I love the take. I want Ritter to play this year because I don't want him to be in a situation where we just don't know. They draft another guy, right? What is the point of that?

That's the worst. The worst place to be is in this gray area purgatory if you're atlanta because it felt like that was the case even in 2021 even before the deshaun watson courting things pissed matt ryan off and got matt ryan out of there you were basically looking okay how much longer is matt ryan going to be there like is it am i just resetting now anyways so i i think they want to get ahead of a lot of that in a really important position but uh what's your next point what's your next takeaway you got uh gonna go with the hype train here number one i have two number one we got we got

to talk about romeo dobbs right because green bay is fascinating yes green bay is it's funny how much we have heard and seen to be fair we've seen it in games of romeo dobbs this summer and how little we've seen of christian watson now i don't think you or i are terribly surprised by watson's slow start getting away from health but just the fact that i was gonna say he's been hurt i hurt for yeah but he has returned to practice um but yeah he was hurt for most of it and just he's a developmental wide receiver. Things got a little out of control with the hype. But Green Bay is a contender, a no-brainer contender.

They have a great defense. They are loaded in the secondary. They can rush the passer. They have so much talent in the middle of the field. They have a guy named Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. They have two stud running backs. They're a well-coached offensive line. And they're a well-coached team.

And it's so fascinating to me that they have this – it's almost we've overlooked that so much because of, who's Aaron Rodgers throwing to this year, right? And, like, Sammy Watkins, it's unfortunate, but it's a matter of time before he's hurt. I don't really factor him into that equation. Alan Lazard is a fine player and is going to get his. But if Dobbs can build off

this big summer he had, and such a fascinating draft process where you watch him at Nevada and you go, man, that guy can win down the field. He's a burner. He tracks the ball. He's explosive. Then he has this draft process where I think he got dinged up at the Senior Bowl, if I remember correctly, but he

also had an injury where he didn't work out throughout the draft process. And a guy like that, so much of his draft stock can be invested in him running in the 4-3s. And he doesn't get to run. Now he goes to Green Bay. Looks like the guy that we saw explode for Nevada. Trevor, to me, if the Dobbs hype train carries over into the season, that is a scary element for everybody else in the NFC. Because the lingering question with the

Packers besides special teams is who Aaron Rodgers is throwing the ball to but we've seen without Devante Adams when he was 7-0 without him last year that Aaron Rodgers can take average wide receivers or mid-round or day three picks and turn them into legitimate starting wide receivers and Dobbs seems to be the next guy up on that track. Yeah, I think the only thing really standing in the way with, I think it's, is it Dobbs or Dubs? So during the draft, we were told it was Dubs. That was the pronunciation guide. Right. I just read an article like a couple of days ago. Yes.

That's been wrong the whole time. So I give up. And then I listened to the broadcast of the plays he's made in the preseason and they're calling him dobbs okay then he stops then i'm then i mean then i'm who knows it was it's like the etn situation over again now what was the situation is uh the real pronunciation like i believe it's the i believe it's the cajun way is a chain a chain you know this etn he said like people have been saying it wrong but people still call me tn wait travis etn yes i'm almost positive is he he has said this before it's like etian something like that yes all right well i'm calling i'm calling them dubs anyway so yeah it is yep it's it's etchian thing

to me that's really standing in the way okay so wait it's etchian it is that's that's i believe he's he's like a quiet guy so i think he wasn't correcting people for at clemson for a long time okay all right we care about pronunciation we're not being sarcastic like i want to get somebody's name right same like it's it's a huge part of draft coverage my last name is sycamore okay i grew up playing hockey i've told people this story before i grew up playing hockey roller eyes uh i played both mainly roller though because i'm from hockey uh because i'm from sorry not hockey i'm from florida um but it's probably a dumb question by me. The coolest moment was in hockey. When you play in some of these big games,

especially if you play travel ball, you get to do the thing where like you, you skate out onto the rink or the ice and they will like announce your name and your number. We like at left wing or at defender or whatever. My last name got butchered every single time. And all I wanted was for somebody to say my name correctly over the loud speaker before a game.

That's all I wanted. So we are never, please, don't get it twisted, or never try to make fun of somebody for their name or their pronunciation. We just want to get it right. It's funny when idiots like us can't. We don't know. Somebody tell us. You know what?

Let's get Romeo Dubs on the podcast. He can tell us. Dubs, Dobbs. We want to get it right. Stick with Dobbs. They call it Dobbs during the to get it right with dobs they call the dobs during the preseason stick up with dobs what i was saying is the only real issue is the drops he's had he had three drops preseason um in the second preseason game where he had five targets he

had three catches and he had two drops aaron rogers has talked about wide receivers got to be more consistent i think dobs has been the big time highlight reel player especially at the beginning of the training camp session going throughout the preseason there's been a lot of really great clips of him at practice there have been some great clips of him during the game and i think he could be a fantastic deep threat especially for a guy like aaron rogers passing the football but he's just got to be more consistent and that's got to be something across the board for the green bay packers as a team those wide receivers have to be more consistent.

And I think that that's what it's going to come down to. But I also think that just because that's the case, the targets are up for grabs in that room. Like whoever proves to be Aaron Rodgers' go-to trustworthy targets, they are going to play. It's not like, ah, this guy's a rookie. You know, we can't really get him in the game. We got other guys on the top of the depth chart they're gonna they're gonna play whoever's gonna become the

most reliable guy so dob's already shown the highlights just got to get more consistent my biggest take is and this isn't like revel like anything crazy i mean aaron jones had 65 targets last year aaron jones should surpass 80 targets this year like no brainer yeah yeah he will he will no brainer so i think that's like but replacing davante's targets is a lot more than should surpass 80 targets this year. Like, no-brainer. Yeah, yeah, he will. No-brainer. So I think that's like, but replacing Devontae's targets is a lot more than 15 to 20. Yes. So it's fascinating.

Green Bay's a really, really good team, and I'm betting on Dobbs to really fill that void. There we go. What do you got next? I think a lot of people are also doing that. Before I get to my next point, I've got to tell people that it's time to get ready

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But it also means that you just get to play more throughout the season so check it out DraftKings Sportsbook all right my next one that I want to go with this is a team that I think we're going to talk about a lot on this podcast Connor and probably not for the best reasons it's the Carolina Panthers and my big storyline takeaway is Baker Mayfield being the starting quarterback in Carolina for Matt Rule in such an important year there for the Panthers. From the top to bottom, that entire organization. All decision makers, all players, everything. This is a massive year for so many people. And they're leaning on Baker Mayfield as their QB1, which was always obvious the second they traded for Mayfield.

It was always going to be Mayfield as their QB1, if you ask me. I am also somebody who does not hate Baker Mayfield as a starting quarterback. I know there were a lot of people who were hating on him last year because there were a lot of times where he just looked straight up unplayable. He was hurt, man. He was way too hurt to be playing, I think. And he was hurting his stock. He was hurting his hype. He was hurting the perception around him in the league, both from front office perspectives, player perspectives, fan perspectives, media perspective, anybody. He was just hurting how people saw Baker Mayfield and the talent that he is, I still think that Baker Mayfield can be a good quarterback in this league. Will he be a good quarterback for the Carolina Panthers? Because Connor, I really think that the entire 2023 NFL draft is going to revolve around the Carolina Panthers. How, if they can play well enough with Baker Mayfield, maybe they get to the point where they save Matt Rule's job again.

This team looks competitive. They want to invest in Baker Mayfield. He gets that second contract with that team. And then all of a sudden, you're kind of invested in Mayfield and invested in the air for another couple of years. But if Carolina doesn't look good, and I'm not going to lie,

I don't have a lot of faith in Matt Rule right now. I just don't. So if Baker Mayfield can't pick up that slack, there is a legit chance that the Carolina Panthers could be picking number one overall next year, or at least in the top three. Same with the Atlanta Falcons. I think the Falcons and the Panthers, both in that NFC South division,

have the potential to be top five picks in the upcoming NFL draft. Carolina has another terrible year. Three wins, four wins, five wins, whatever. It's a lower on the spectrum. Obviously the higher they're picking. Matt Rule is going to be gone. That entire coaching staff is going to be gone. Mayfield's going to be gone.

Sam Donald's going to be gone. The only quarterback left on the roster is basically going to be Matt Corral, whose entire rookie season is going to be gone because of an injury. They're going to be in the quarterback market heavy if that happens. It is going to be an entirely new everything in Carolina. There's going to be a new head coach. It needs to be. There might even be. I mean, Scott Fitterer probably gets fired as GM as well. So you're going to have a new GM. You're going to have a new head coach. And that new head coach is going to have a chance to pick a new franchise quarterback, probably in the top three of the NFL draft.

It all is on Baker Mayfield's shoulders. I don't have a lot of faith in that rule at this point. I just don't. And I think the Panthers, whether they're finishing with two wins or whether they're finishing with six or seven, I don't think it's going to be more than that, even in the best-case scenario. Where they pick and how that team plays is going to play a heavy hand into what happens this nfl offseason and in the 2023 nfl draft it's fascinating to me because and when i said it needs to if all the things happen that you said then it need they

need to restart in all the key areas because you don't get to run it back again. And people sit here and argue, you know, oh, they didn't get to pick their guy. You did. You traded a lot for Sam Darnold in my opinion, considering what you had to pay him with the fifth year. You now tried to get

to Sean Watson and failed, which we're not even going down that road. Now you have baker mayfield i maybe i'm crazy i think this team is going to be better than people expect i don't think they're going to be really good i do think they can win eight games and that puts them in a place of i don't think they win any games what do we do i mean dude they play jacoby brissett week one they play the giants after that caroline has i think the 14th edg schedule in the nfl compared to when i was last year yeah you play the falcons twice once again i don't think they're

you know because they got to deal with the Saints and the Bucs in their own division, which makes things really hard. I don't think they're a team that just rolls over. If Baker is healthy, if Baker is healthy, I think they, and the biggest variable with this team every year, which is infuriating at this point, is that when Christian McCaffrey is healthy, they are an entirely different football team. Like an entirely different football team.

But the problem is, he is often not healthy. So if he has this anomaly year that he stays healthy for 80% of the season, they're a tough out for anybody. Maybe it is different. Maybe it is different. Because I do think that McCaffrey is more of an offensive weapon than he is a running back. I think that he changes the confidence in that locker room a ton.

Here's my thing trev to your point i am worried that they are just treading water and it's like ah we get matt rules really big contract fitter hasn't been here that long we'll run it back again the following year i think they're on thin ice this year i don't know maybe maybe this is something because we're going to do an over-under win total episode before the season gets kicked off. Maybe that's really when we can get into what's the number that we think Matt Rule has to hit to not get fired. Man, yeah. Off the top of my head, I would say if he's not at least 500,

I think they're probably firing him. Which, if you think this Carolina Panthers team is going to come out of nowhere, new quarterback, be 500 in that division, I don't know. It's tough. A lot to ask. A lot to ask. So, let me say this. Their win total is set at 6.5.

I think they win seven or eight games. Maybe I'm nuts. But I guess that doesn't really matter. Because we're talking about if they win seven or eight games. Maybe I'm nuts. But I guess that doesn't really matter because we're talking about if they win seven or eight, they still could be fired. I would pick the under on that. But I also reserve the right to change my answer before the episode that we do.

Okay, that's fair. I thought you were going to say based on if, like, McCaffrey stays healthy or something. I'm like, this freaking guy, dude. It would be an incredible move. Hold on, I also reserve the right to change my answer. At any moment. At any point prior to week 17.

Oh, that would be incredible. All right. What's the next one you got? Next one for me is, you know, after watching as much of the preseason film as I could on the, not first round, the defensive players that, you know, there's expectations for. Who the heck is going to win defensive rookie of the preseason film as I could on the, not first round, the defensive players that, you know, there's expectations for who the heck is going to win defensive rookie of the year.

And. Oh, great question. What are the odds? I have them. So understandably, because this would be my pick. It's chalk pick the top guys,

Aiden Hutchinson at plus four 50, which isn't like, he's not like a real favorite. He's the favorite, but it's not like, Whoa, like he's the runaway plus four 50 is good. Good money. It's not like a real favorite. He's the favorite, but it's not like, whoa, like he's the runaway. Plus 450 is good money.

It's not bad. I don't know why Kayvon Thibodeau is still plus 600. He's hurt. It'd be a bad bet. It's a bad bet. He did not have a hot start. I mean, we love KT as much as anyone on this show. Yeah. But he didn't have a great start overall this summer, and he got hurt.

No. Kyle Hamilton plus 800. I would be floored if a safety that is on a team with two other really good safeties. Trayvon Walker plus 800. He was the number one overall pick. Made some plays this summer. Okay. I don't love you.

Quay Walker plus 1,000. No, don't love it. Sauce Gardner plus 1,000. That's the one that I would put money on if I'm not putting money on Aiden. I agree. Right? I mean, because what's going to win the award? Sacks, interceptions.

And playing a lot. Well, of course. Right. These guys. You have to play a lot in order to, yeah, to cure this. Sauce is officially, not that it was a real secret, but they tried to act like it was. He's starting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he played against starters during the preseason. So, I mean, it's like you said. It's very hard for a corner to win an award where I don't like. What's that? Plus 1,200. Okay. Is there anybody else intriguing?

Nicoby Dean plus 1,200 is intriguing to me. Eagles are going to be good. And that's going to help Dean. Oh, man. Is Dean going to be good. And that's going to help Dean. Oh, man. Is Dean going to start right away? I think so. I don't know who else would be ahead of him. It may be a dumb question.

I just haven't. You know what's a kind of a sneaky one, too? Is Carl Loftus at plus 1600? Because the Chiefs are so good. And he's had a pretty good summer. Yeah. But once again, not saying I'm taking that, but that's good value. Carl Optus plus

1600. But it's my point of the topic isn't why I brought it up, but I'm glad we had this combo. It's tough, man. Like Aiden has not really played a ton, but he's looked really really good when they've played him. And he's such a high effort guy, even when he's not winning out of the gate, but he's looked really, really good when they've played him. And he's such a high effort guy, even when he's not winning

out of the gate, that he's going to have numbers, even if he has a slow start. No, you're 100% right. You're 100%. Aiden should be the runaway favorite. I would actually think he should be plus 300, plus 250. Plus 450 is good value for Hutch.

Yeah, you can get good money right there either way i i think it's interesting to me i think defensive rookie of the year this is uh i think after hutchinson the combo is extremely difficult yeah i'd probably go with some of those guys that are right around 1,200 like i'd look at sauce i'd look at stingley there's those are long shot players dean is also very interesting if he if he starts soon rather than later he didn't even have to start week one but if he starts soon rather than later that's somebody who could potentially get a ton of tackles he's a really athletic player really smart player i don't know how many head interceptions he's gonna get because i think those will probably more be more luck than anything else

rookie season but excellent blitzer right guy who they're gonna to send plenty on the blitz somebody's very aggressive on the blitz you start getting backfield production now we're talking about something that you can hang your hat on to the voters so and he's got jordan davis in front of him again which we know that he loves that always a good thing run free yeah good thing uh all right so next one for me you know what i'm gonna'm going to show the Miami Dolphins some love. All right? I'm going to show the Miami Dolphins some love. Not popular these days.

I am excited about the Tua era. And this is probably the first time that I've been on this side of the Tua train because I'm often on the other side of the train where it's just going head – full head of steam straight at him and and i i don't believe him and i think it's gonna all blow up in their face because there i'm gonna be honest there has not been a lot of reason to believe in two over the last two years that's coming from my perspective i know fans out there have been able to nitpick some stats and say like situations here and there this could be a promise this could build something else i just have not

had a lot of faith in him over the last couple of years for for a multitude of reasons but for as much as I don't really believe Ty I'm not I'm not fully on Tyreek Hill's side where he's talking about how Tua is more accurate than Mahomes I do think that Tua has a chance to be really good in this offense specifically with Mike McDaniel who I think was a really great play caller, has been for the last couple of years. I love his offensive philosophy. I love the zone running that they're bringing in, the zone offense that they're bringing into Miami.

And it's something that I really do think that I agree with people. It plays to his strengths. And you can sit here and say, oh yeah, Jalen Waddell and Tyree Killwood played every quarterback's strengths. Okay, you are right, but guess who gets to throw to him?

Tua does. And because of that, I am excited for it, man. You look at this past preseason game that he had, 121 passing yards, 51 of them came on that first play of the game to Tyreek Hill. And there's some people on Twitter who were like, wow, he didn't even like hit him in stride. He doesn't have as strong of an arm as Mahomes. Okay, duh.

Of course he doesn't. But something else I like from the throw is he gave tyreek a chance he threw the ball close enough to tyreek hill underneath tyreek hill where he could adjust get away from the fender and guess what he caught the ball that's what being a quarterback is about yeah not everybody has the arm that justin herbert does not everybody has the arm that patrick mahomes does. Tua did what he was supposed to do, given his physical abilities on that play. And he did it very well. And he gave his guy a chance.

And guess what? They gained 51 yards for it. I also love the fact that they took the deep shot to start the game. That's something that I absolutely love. When you've got speed and that element of speed, you don't got to go into first gear, second gear, third gear. Okay, now we're warming up the offense. It's a Ferrari, man.

Hit the gas. Like the Miami Dolphins, every single game this season should be starting the drive with Tyree Kill running deep. And if you don't have the horses to keep up with them, guess what? We're throwing the ball deep. And if you can't stop it, we're gaining 50 yards on the first play. And if it doesn't work, all right, cool. We're moving on, second down.

You covered it well. We're adjusting from there. But Zach Al-Khatib from Sports Nation or Sporting News. I wanted to quote him on this because he kind of gathered stats here. Dolphins ranked fourth in the NFL last season with 158 play action attempts, producing the seventh most yardage in the NFL over 1,200. Conversely, the 49ers only had 124 play action snaps, so less than the Dolphins last year, which was just 18th.

It was in the back half of the league, but they still produced very effectively doing it over 1,100 yards, almost 1,200 yards themselves. They were a top 10 unit there. So even though McDaniel and the San Francisco 49ers didn't run play action as much as the Dolphins did last year they ran it very very effectively so it's something that you know two is going to be able to play off of I think if they can use their running backs as a threat out of the backfield in the passing game

and even just getting chunk gains you really force the defense to respect it and then of course you get speed coming over the line of scrimmage, whether it's with mesh routes or deep crossers or things over the middle. That's tough to defend with those wide receivers that they have there. They really have a recipe for something to be very special. And, you know, I think what was even more impressive to me with Tua in this past game that he played in the preseason finale wasn't even the 55-yard pass to Terry Kill. It was that rollout to his left as a lefty, touchdown throw that he had into the end zone

that was just on the move, beautiful timing, tight end going straight to the corner of the end zone, and he put that thing on the money, on the move as a rollout. That's the kind of stuff that's going to be great for Tua this season. I hope that they play a lot more. And I just think that Mike McDaniel is the right guy to have in that room to get the most out of a lot of different weapons and a lot of what Tua can possibly do best. So I'm actually, I am, I'm excited about the Miami Dolphins. I know it's not popular for a lot of people in the timeline,

but I'm excited to see what it's like when the regular season rolls around. McDaniel's a mastermind. If he can't get efficiency out of tua i i don't think anyone else can it's right i agree with you i would agree with you my thing with tua is that i come back to which i always find so fascinating that i don't hear more of this we talk so much about the lack of faith of into as a player and you you've talked about the opposite like you do see flashes and instances of bright spots i just always wonder if tua's body will ever hold up over a course of a full nfl season where and i'm not saying like to uh you know don't want this to

happen like springs his ankle and is out for three games like i'm talking about like injuries little injuries that hinder his play and everybody's like oh games. I'm talking about injuries, little injuries, that hinder his play. And everybody's like, oh, Tua looks like crap. And it's like, well, maybe he's still playing through something from a hit he took the week before. And it seems like those things affect him, where I'm a believer that Mike McDaniel gets a Jimmy G season

out of Tua this year. That's what I think, too. And that's good. I know calling Jimmy G efficient or mediocre is not cool or popular, but that's what Jimmy G has mostly been when he's with Mike McDaniel. I think it's really the same thing for Tua. I see Tua having a 22-touchdown, 12-interception season, and it's fine. And the Dolphins have a good defense, so it's like they'll be fine I don't see like stardom for Tua I don't see like oh my god this guy's out of the league

next year the question I always come back to is can he stay healthy enough through the course of a season that he's not playing through things or missing time that he can efficiently get on that track for the offense because having Waddle and tyreek and a better run game with better run blocking is going to help him so much but there's always that little lingering question with him all right let's get uh one or two more each uh kind of rapid rapid fire a little bit we'll do this in in about 10 minutes and we'll get to all these all right you got one more what is it yeah i mean we have to talk about damian pierce right? Because I don't want to be less show that like you and I spend half a year, maybe more sometimes a full year because now we're really rolling with summer scouting on a guy,

love a guy, and then it turns into everything you could have dreamed of in the summer. It's time that we talk about Damian Pierce again. You and I loved this player and we loved this film in Florida. You were screaming, why is Dan Mullen not giving this guy the ball? He goes to the senior bowl. He's awesome. He's great in pass pro. He's tough.

He's physical. Everybody loves talking to Damian Pierce all the time. Yep. He's an afterthought in the draft, like most running backs. The Texans take him on day three, and they're a team that has to really restore the talent on the roster.

They've been lacking a lot of that for the years, and they're on the right track. I like a lot of their picks. And this dude had an awesome summer, Trevor, where they're protecting him. They're like bubble wrapping him because he looks so good in camp. And then when you get to see him,

and he's so efficient, he's breaking tackles. That translates. Breaking tackles in the SEC, you're going to break tackles at the NFL. And he's everything they want, and he's in a work share with Marlon Mack and Rex Burkhead, where it's like, nope, you're the guy on a team that after drafting Kenyon Green in the first round, they're trying to get tougher. They're trying to run the football. Damian Pierce's summer has been awesome. And these are my favorite stories from the NFL

draft. A guy of underutilized in college works his ass off throughout the all-star circuit and the combine and all these things still a little underdrafted in the actual nfl draft and as everything is advertised in the summer blowing away his own team's expectations we got to give damian pierce some love damian pierce's is he's he's the man and he's he's been playing so well and you just you absolutely love to see it this is a dude who i think throughout the entire nfl draft process i look i tweeted this out and i i thought it was true when i tweeted it out i absolutely loved it damian pierce is your favorite football player whether you realize it or not like that's what i tweeted i think i had said draft prospect actually he's your favorite draft prospect whether

you realize it yet or not and that's what it's turning out to be man throughout this entire preseason whether it was training camp clips whether it was the interview clips or whether it was it's been what we have seen over the last uh couple of games of him he's been fantastic and he's been the guy that everybody loves to play for loves uh uh loves to play with it just it him being rb1 happened way sooner than i thought it was going to. But I'm so glad that it is because he's such a fun player to watch. His running style is just – it's fun. You want to tune in to Damian. You want to see what Damian Pierce is doing every single game day for the Houston Texans because he's forcing so many missed tackles,

whether it's shimmying guys and putting his foot in the ground, making a miss with a one-cut, or lowering the shoulder, running through a couple of players, getting some extra yards's just he's got a fun running style he's somebody he's a little bit of a throwback player in that regard and he's fantastic man love damien pierce i don't want to i don't want to sound too biased about him because he's a because he's a gator great he's a greater uh no bias he's no bias he's true he's fantastic i i got two more points that i want to get to before we uh before we do that, I got to tell people about our newest partner here on this podcast, revolutionizing the world of sports betting

and fan engagement by making sports fandom profitable. That company is Symbol, S-I-M-B-U-L-L, the stock market for sports. Symbol was a PFF sponsor last year, and they are back for this football season. Symbol lets you trade pro and college teams like stocks and even earn cash dividends and payouts when your team wins symbol took the thrill of sports betting and combine it with the profitability of the stock markets give you a platform where fortune favors the fan you can download the symbol mobile app for ios by searching s-i-m-b-u-l-l in the app store and use the promo code nflsc to receive a free team stock valued up to 150 when you guys sign up for it it's such a cool concept if you're

into the stock market feel at all it's just it's a really cool thing pff team myself and connor we've got our accounts all set up that's something that we're going to do throughout the season we're going to be talking about that on this podcast we want want you guys to tweet at us. We want you guys to tell us which teams you think are primed to make you a lot of money during the season because it's exactly like the stock market. You look at stocks and you say, hmm, that company is about to really hit it big. I got a lot of faith in them.

You invest in it, you win some money that way. You could win some real money being a fan and approaching it that way as well. So Connor and I are going to be going back and forth doing that. We would love to go back and forth with guys as well download the app create a free account use the promo code nflsc get a free stock valued up to 150 and compete against nfl stock exchange podcast this season using symbol all right my two that i want to get to first one i'll just i'll just say my my tampa bay Buccaneers note because obviously I've been paying very quick, very –

I don't even know what word I was about to use. Closely. You've been closely watching the situation. This is close. What am I doing? I'm not in midseason form right now. I need to get in midseason form. It's preseason for us too. Buck's offensive line. It's not anymore, brother. It is go time. I got to be better. I got to be better.

Buck's offensive line could keep them from the super bowl and i really believe that uh our friend eric eager pff legend he comes up with the nfl simulations every single year using a formula model where he just runs a lot of simulations to see what the odds of teams to win the super bowl are for the upcoming season tampa tampa bay buccaneers i believe had the highest odds to win the super bowl this season tom brady and retaining a coaching staff that offensive talent most of the defense coming back like all of that goes into it's a team that's very similar to the one that won a superbowl a couple years ago but the offensive line really could hold them back not just from

achieving their goal of being superbowl champions but also even i'll say making a postseason run at all okay ali marpet retired ryan jensen suffered a knee injury he's not going to play for most of the season they don't even they won't even tell people i guess what his final injury is and how long he's gonna be out tristan wirfs has been beat up this preseason aaron stinney who was competing for the job at left guard uh he tore his acl he's. He won't play anymore this season. Backup center Ryan Hainsey, who was in for Ryan Jensen, he got hurt this past preseason game.

So did Nick Leverett. His backup, they've got Luke Gadecki with a starting role, who they drafted in the mid-rounds of this past draft. People got to realize that when the Bucs won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago yes they had tom brady yes they had that offense yes they had an incredible defense that year they were healthy along the offensive line they were very healthy that entire season along the offensive line it takes luck to win a super bowl and when i say luck i don't just mean the ball bouncing the right way guys in a very physical violent game have to stay healthy especially in the trenches and the buccaneers got lucky two years ago when they won the super bowl because their entire

offensive line played most of the season together and they were fantastic down the stretch even if they get ryan jensen back right even if they get a couple of these guys back here and there, chemistry is so important. So any injuries to the Bucks, which we are seeing now, could be detrimental for them being a deep playoff team and also to win the Super Bowl. And then the last point that I want to bring up, are we going to get Sam Howell starting this year?

I'm very intrigued to see if we're going to, because he started this past preseason game, the final preseason game for the Washington Commanders, played 27 snaps, rushed for 62 yards, passed for 280, had a 68 percentage, or a completion percentage, one touchdown, had an 82.0 run grade and a 76.8 passing grade. I think even beyond the numbers though, Connor,

Sam Howell plays some inspiring football yes he does you know if you watch any of those clips that you saw from the third preseason game the offensive line is failing him and you got guys tackling him in the backfield he's breaking the tackles and he's running by guy and he's making something out of it he looks like adam sandler in the longest yard sometimes when the offensive line like he's got to pick up the first down you know say so and i i remember on one of the plays where he got hit in the backfield shook it off got a big first down yeah he ran out of bounds towards the washington bench and the bench is like going crazy for him like they're loving him and i'm not saying that like carson

wentz isn't an inspiring guy but let's all be honest like Carson Wentz when he left Indianapolis it was basically like he was not the leader that they wanted at that quarterback position does any of that come up in Washington because if it is Sam Howell's gonna be sitting there and there's gonna be players in the locker room who are like yo well we want to fight for this dude like well let's put the rookie and let's see what the rookie can do if this season starts to go a certain way so he's not going to start right away he's not going to start week one but keep an eye on Sam Howell might get some starting spots as the year goes on Washington season actually starts really really soft so I

assume that they're gonna have a good start to the season but who knows maybe towards the end of the year maybe we might get a little bit of sam how earlier than we thought even with all of that you know if you're not a believer you are isn't it freaking wild he fell to the fifth round like what with the scarcity of brother backup quarterback play in the nfl how did this dude who was 21 years old on draft night still 21 as we do this show, who was in the first round of mock drafts the summer before, I get it. He didn't have a great final year at UNC while the talent also fell off. He lost a lot of talent. It's funny to me, like I looked at it and I was, it's so funny how you look at things before the draft. I thought I

was low on Sam Howell. Item 67th, Trevor. Right. You went in the fifth round. The NFL didn't give two you-know-what's about this guy. And you're right. And I'll close the show with this. My favorite thing of this preseason was all of the quarterbacks that nobody gave a crap about just balling out. You could only do what you're given, play time with what you're given. You, people say, ah, it's third or fourth stringers. You go in the game when you go in the game.

Right. Sam Howell, Skylar Thompson. Yep. Chris Streveler. Like these guys. These are fake names. They are somehow not fake names. And I know there's even more.

They were awesome this summer, especially like Howell was probably going to be on the roster. Although fifth rounder, you're never guaranteed. That's true. Skylar Thompson and Chris Trevler, if they don't make their respective teams, they should make another team. That's how well they played for the Dolphins and the Jets,

who aren't exactly swimming in riches in recent years at quarterback play. That's a good point. So I'm just saying I enjoyed that aspect of the preseason whether it translates long term or not and we often know what the answer is. It's cool to see guys in a league that like look at what Tyler Huntley has become in this league. Oh man, Tyler Huntley

has been underrated for a long time. Tyler Huntley is going to be starting for a team in the next three years at some point, dude. I remember watching God, what year was this? Uh, 2019. Probably Utah versus Washington. And I remember Jacob Beeson was in that game. I was, I was at,

I was in Washington because I was covering the Buccaneers at the time. They were playing the Seattle Seahawks and Washington just happened to have a home game. The Huskhington just happened to have a home game the huskies just happened to have a home game that weekend against utah so i was like oh i gotta go see it i watched tyler huntley versus jacob beason and jacob beason was the notable draft name in that game and i remember coming away from that game and i said tyler huntley was the nfl quarterback in that game it wasn't jacob beason it was tyler huntley and so he has i mean this this guy has been playing some good ball for a

couple of years now and i hope he does get a legit starting shot because i'd love to see him with that kind of pressure at his back yeah it's it's cool to see just good backup quarterback play whether it's against third stringers fourth stringers it doesn't matter it's all you can you all you can do is go out there and and you know play against what you're given so i enjoyed that throughout the preseason. I'd rather see that than these, like, nine to three games. It was fun. Look, it's fun.

The preseason is fun for, I think, its own reasons, right? And one of those reasons is you get to talk about some names that you're probably not going to talk about a lot during the regular season. And you get to have a different conversation going into the year. And it's almost like a football overload, but you love it because it's been so many months without the sport without things to talk about and let's make this preseason so fun but those are our preseason thoughts we'd love to hear your preseason thoughts as well from either your favorite team or just teams or players that you've been watching that have really impressed you you

can hit us up in the comment section you can hit us up on twitter of course you know what we got one more show this week. You can send fan mail. I don't know where. I was going to say we got one more show this week. Next week, we're going to three shows a week. We're going to really get into some things. You want to do a mailbag on Thursday?

Yes. We hadn't even talked about that, but we're really long overdue for one. We are long overdue for one. We want to hear from y'all. You guys have been listening. You've been getting into the comments. You've been getting into our mentions. We love you for it all summer long, talking about summer scouting,

talking about some of the mock draft Mondays we've been doing. Obviously, the last month has been jam-packed with tons of football information. We're opening up the mailbag. You give us some questions and some topics to discuss, month has been jam-packed with tons of football information we're opening up the mailbag you give us some questions and some topics to discuss some rankings maybe put these players in buckets rank this guy who would you rather have this or that like would you rather situations with teams open it up it's ask me anything kind of a format but it's a mailbag for you guys of course as always uh if you ask us a question with a five-star review on itunes it will disney fast pass to the front of the line and we will get to your question at the very

beginning of the show as many as we can for those entries that we have so if you haven't done that yet yet if you uh if you haven't given a five-star review and a question please do that uh on our itunes for our podcast it's a fun way to to help out the pod and shout out everybody who is who's done that already everybody that did that for the last mailbag we really really really appreciate you guys that is such a uh a cool thing that you do to help us out and help this podcast out but uh yeah let's do a mailbag bud um that's gonna be fun for us it's gonna be jam-packed episode yeah it's my favorite i love it you never know what to expect um we don't really really plan out those shows. No, we really don't.

We just go into it and have a blast. We go really long. Yeah, like Trevor said, iTunes reviews, which we cannot appreciate enough, get first choice. If you send them by a raven, you get second choice. That's true. Somehow, if you just send us a bird with a note, I don't know, to the pff office or whatever

it is that that that is second choice second yes and then and then twitter and everything else yeah twitter the we'll probably do the q a on the nfl stock exchange twitter account if you're not following that i think it's just that pff underscore nflse we're probably going to use that for most of the questions but we'll'll probably tweet out the little question thing as well to make sure you guys don't miss your chance. But that's coming up on Thursday. I'm Trevor. That's Connor.

Thanks, guys, for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. We'll see you next time.