The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - First impressions of the rookie class in preseason action

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Good news! All of the good stuff you saw from the players you like and all the bad stuff from players you don't like in preseason is real. But the things that don't affirm your existing opinion? Fake. Not going to happen again. Robert Mays and Dave Helman have a mix of both those opinions and more reactions to the first preseason action of 2026.0:00 Welcome to the show3:54 Arizona Cardinals-Las Vegas Raiders4:30 Jeremiyah Love injury8:29 Fernando Mendoza9:52 Jeremiyah Love pre-injury14:24 Chase Bisontis15:25 Ty Simpson16:39 Stetson Bennett21:16 R Mason Thomas21:42 Drew Allar23:50 Jager Burton & Aaron Banks28:24 Caleb Douglas28:49 Kadyn Proctor29:49 De'zhaun Stribling30:33 Jakobi Lane32:49 Jack Bech34:46 Matthew Hibner37:35 Marlin Klein39:55 Cincinnati Bengals-Detroit Lions45:06 Cleveland Browns quarterbacks52:20 Browns receivers54:21 Carolina Panthers-Buffalo Bills56:07 Seattle Seahawks-Dallas Cowboys56:46 Jamal Adams57:51 Tennessee Titans-San Francisco 49ers59:46 Other positive performancesJoin The Athletic Football Show Discord Server: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowHost: Robert MaysCo-Hosts: Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @RobertMaysFollow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_Theme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Weekend one of the preseason is in the books. Dave and I spent some time today hitting as many notable things as we could from an entire slate of preseason football. We saw Fernando Mendoza on Thursday night. We saw Jeremiah Love on Thursday night. A bunch of other rookie quarterback.

Some rookie receivers stood out. We got some rookie offensive linemen that we saw for the first time. The Browns quarterback battle. Obviously a ton of stuff to sort through. We tried to hit as much of it as we possibly could on this Monday morning. one quick bit of housekeeping September 1st, Tuesday at Lincoln Hall in Chicago

our next live show doing the Winspool draft live please if you have not gotten your tickets and you're in the Chicago land area or you're a quick drive away we would love to see you that night we'll do some Q&A afterwards we'll do some little meet and greet

afterwards at the venue we'd love to see you guys would love to meet you guys tickets are available now on the Lincoln Hall website and in the description below that's where you can find link to those in the description below, wherever you listen to your podcast. Other scheduling notes to hit, August 27th, live on our YouTube channel, we're doing a

fantasy draft with the show and a bunch of friends of the show. Andy Barron's is going to be with us. Jake Seeley's going to be with us from the fantasy team, Courtney Cronin, Adam Amin, some of our Chicago friends. So really looking forward to that, just doing an entire fantasy draft. If you guys want to come hang out while you're doing that as a way to prep for for your Labor Day weekend drafts, or if you're just a big fantasy football fan,

we encourage you guys to check that out. So have that on your calendars along with the live show. Now, let's get to me and Dave breaking down weekend one of the NFL preseason. It is the middle of August, and we finally have some actual football game. Actual might be a little bit of a loose term. But there is football to talk about.

Dave, we are going to dive into the weekend that was in preseason games. in the NFL. A lot of fun stuff to dig into, whether it is real or not. I'm buzzing, man. I watched wall to wall football for four days and there's so much to take out of it, but also it was so bad too. I mean, you're averaging 16 penalties per game probably, like the Cowboys Seahawks game, the last game on Saturday night had 21 combined penalties. Just there was there was some atrocious football being played. And so I'm downloading it all. I'm very excited about the stuff that I do want to talk about while just trying to process.

Yes, this is what preseason football looks like. It's not quite the same thing, but it's okay. Yeah, I don't, not sure how strongly we need to come out with the disclaimer of it's preseason games. Like, just take everything that we say with a grain of salt. Like, we all know this, right? Like, we can all just agree that this is the sandbox that we're about to play in right now. wish that were true and I am I'm not talking about the world at large I'm talking about right here in this yes the covenant between you and I and the listeners on the other side of it let's understand

what kind of space we're operating in here I can't control what happens beyond that in this box yes I like that very much actually let's control what we can control and trust our very good listenership to not get carried away as we try not to get carried away let let's start let's kind of go in sort of chronological order here, in part because one of the first games of the weekend was maybe the most intriguing game in terms of the players that we saw among any of the ones from this weekend. We had two of the top three picks that were a part of a single preseason game between the Cardinals and the Raiders. And so I do think that's probably the most notable game from the entire slate for a whole bunch of reasons, in part because it felt like a lot of people watched it because there wasn't a ton else that was going on that Thursday. and I think there were three games happening when that one was going on. The jolt that went through my body on Thursday evening when I was like,

Jeremiah Love's going to play Fernando Mendoza tonight and I can toggle between that and the earlier game. This is going to be the best night of my life. And I had to do some soul searching after that. But yeah, like, it was, it was great. Like having Fernando Mendoza playing and I mean, we should talk about the Jeremiah Love injury, especially since you shed some light on it on social media, a lot of, I mean, it was fun to watch, but then like storylines coming out of it as well.

Yeah, that whole thing is, it's unfortunate that that's how it ended. So the, what Dave is referring to, Jeremiah Love gets 14 touches in that first half against the Raiders, which is obviously ridiculous, right? And people are like, well, if you extrapolate that over a full season, it would be the most touches of all time. You think he's going to touch the ball 28 times a game? You think that's the plan? So I think that there's a little bit of bad faith happening on both sides of this. My response to it was, and this is one of the items in the notebook that we did from Cardinals' Training Camp. If you guys want to go check out any of those notebooks, they're all available on the YouTube channel.

And I think that the thought process with love and the thought process with some running backs in general is that in training camp, is that in training camp, you've watched a million training camp practices. How much actual feel can you get for what running backs are in actual training camp practices? there's no tackling you're getting only a handful of like truly live reps over the course of a single practice in the run game and so I think the part of the thought what jeremiah i love was it's impossible for him to get a feel for the speed of the game and us for us for us for us to have a proper sense of who he is based solely on training camp and we've been a part there are people on that staff that it's like we've been a part of offenses and situations where rookie running backs did not play during the preseason, and we felt like that might have stunted their acclimation to the NFL

game early in their careers. I think that was the thought process as to why Jeremiah Love was getting all of these touches. I don't think the plan was going to be that he was going to get 15 touches in every preseason game. I think it was, hey, let's get, let him get his feet wet because it's really hard for him to have a sense of the speed of the game solely from practice. The fact that that entire process ended with him getting hurt is an unfortunate thing.

But just for context as to why he was touching the ball as often as he was, I think that is what their approach was going to be with him in this first preseason game. It's probably easier said than done. And hindsight is 2020. Obviously, everybody flipped out when it came out, you know, Michael Fleur said after the game that his ankle was sore than people expected and they're going to be cautious with him. And it's easy to say, like, well, dial those touches down.

the Cardinals scored like every time they had the ball in this game like you're I mean they had four straight double digit play scoring drives where you know maybe you don't expect that script to happen and you want to keep Jeremiah loving the flow of the game and all of a sudden the touches balloon even still 14 just feels like a lot to me right off the rip and I I completely understand that they aren't going to give him or they weren't going to give him 14 in every single game but even still maybe maybe a hard cap at 10 might have been a better idea even if I do understand how that stuff happens though like where the drives are working out better than you think and the offense is in a little bit of a rhythm and maybe he stays out there longer than you thought he would

but yeah 14 is a little much yeah the thought process being if we play him a little bit in the preseason it accelerates his chances of hitting the ground running when the regular season starts how important that is for a Cardinals team that's currently in the position that they're in, that's a worthwhile conversation. Like, can we just ease him in in the regular season? Does he need to be at full speed like, oh, man, like he's locked into the NFL game in week one if you're this version of the Arizona Cardinals? That's worth a discussion.

And again, when I say that and try to provide the context to that, it's not that I'm defending or supporting that choice. I think it's more so just tapping into the reasoning behind it. what did you think about Fernando? I really, what we saw from him, I think, was a combination of stuff I wanted to see him do more in the NFL game and some of the stuff that crept up in college. And when I say that, I really liked some of the just sweeping the board progression stuff that he did. I mean, he came back to the backside on a dig at one point. You saw him kind of moving from one to two to three.

the kind of tight window throw he had on the numbers on the right side. I mean, in college, so much of what he was doing was like access stuff to the outside on these RPO's. And I thought it was going to be a pretty big development curve for him to get used to the rhythms of an NFL offense. And so to see him show some comfort level with some of that stuff was really nice. I mean, that's exactly what you want to see. At the same time, some of the shortcomings to his game in college did show up. When he can't scramble, he does short circuit. a little bit sometimes when he gets pressure.

And so it was a mix of a lot of stuff. It was the things you want to see from him progressing into the NFL game and some of the elements of his game in college where you're just like, that that would be what would hold me back a little bit about him. So I think there was some good and some bad. But overall, I think very encouraging if you're somebody who wants to see him play early in the season. It was fun just in general.

And we don't have to jump ahead. But just in general, the rookie QBs acquitted themselves nicely this weekend. And we don't have to take it any further than that, but it was a nice weekend for the rookie quarterbacks. So let's go through those. Before we do that, the Jeremiah Love usage is one thing. What did you think of the Jeremiah Love quality of those touches and what you saw from him?

He looked fantastic. He looks explosive. He's, this is my own perception. He just, he looks like to me just watching the game. Like he's not this like overwhelmingly. physical presence to me. Like I, but, but he, he played with a physicality that I thought was really,

really impressive, like getting extra yards, fighting through tackles, and like, just looking the, like, the part of a guy who can stand up to NFL physicality. This is going to sound silly because I know, like, he's six foot two, 12. I know he's not like a slight guy, but I guess my perception of him in college

is just more as like a big play back, but it's exploding. Yeah, there's like, the physicality is not the first word you think of when you think of Jeremiah I love. I completely understand that. And for him to showcase some of that stuff, I just thought was really nice and impressive. And like, I was over the moon about the way that he looked until I heard that he was banged up. The Jeremiah I love entire conversation, might as well do this now because I think this is a good point to do it. I was critical may not be the right word.

I had my apprehension about the Cardinals taking Jeremiah of where they did in this draft be based on where they are as a franchise. We don't want to spend any more time revisiting what that conversation was like. That was one of the things I was really curious to ask people when I was there. It was like, okay, just walk me through the thought process, right?

And there have been two things with the Cardinals over the last two years where the previous season, remember they didn't add any players to the offense. They didn't do anything to the offense during the 2025 off season. And I was like, man, that's kind of strange. And then you get there and you start talking through each of the choices and it's like, that wasn't the plan, right?

Like we didn't want to add no players to the offense, just the way the offseason fell. And talking to them about the thought process behind the love pick and why they ultimately went that direction and just the idea of he's an elite player, right? And then this was the argument in the moment if you were supporting this choice. He's an elite player. Do you want to take a non-elite player, what we deem premium player? positions just because you're taking a guy in the top five or do you want to take the elite player? And a good argument that I think is completely worthwhile, the two guys that we talked

about in the moment that we thought played those premium positions that might have been alternative choices for them were maybe like a slight trade down for Francis Maui Noah or an Arvel Reese. Francis Maui Noah is playing guard for the Giants and Arval Reese is playing off ball linebacker for the Giants. And so that only complicates it even further. The fact that those two guys who in theory, depending on how you deployed them, could be premium position players. They're not even being used like that. And so I just think that there were so many quirks to this year's draft to this year's

top 10 that it becomes easier to talk yourself into why Jeremiah Love is the right pick for this Cardinals team in the moment. And in hearing some of the thought process behind it and just how they arrived there, I've definitely softened on it. I think it was just important to hear the reasoning. In the same way, it was important to hear the reasoning the year before about why their offseason kind of fell the way that it did when they added no players to the offense. I guess my only argument would be Francis Maui Noah doesn't need to play guard on the Arizona

Cardinals. It was also the bad back part of it, right? So you're taking like a guard tackle tweener that has a bad back over a guy that you think is an elite player. And I get that. And again, it's not ideal team building process, but this wasn't a draft where you could really abide by ideal team building process. my thing is honestly we're we're here now we're in the preseason i just we can revisit all that

stuff after we see what it looks like but he in the here and now i'm just i'm tired of litigating that and jeremiah loves the decision you made you gave him a few too many touches but he looked like a guy who who could be worth that type of pick in the in the moment at least that's probably that's that's an overreaction to preseason but like he's gonna be a fantastic player Yeah, we haven't had the, I just haven't had the discussion since I was there. And so might as well do it now rather than the NFC West preview where we're talking about like what the Rams see or what the like 49ers defense is going to look like. No use spending time on it there. The last Cardinals point, and this is a bummer, the German I love thing is an annoyance injury-wise.

The Chase Posontes injury, that one really is a huge blow. He right now, he was not a member of the starting offense. I think that was in part because they really like Isaiah Adams. I mean, Zay Adams came on in the back half of the last year. He was a third round pick a couple years ago. And so there was no guarantee that Pesontas was even going to crack the starting lineup at any point this year. But he was still a player that they're very excited about on a multi-year level for the future.

And so for him to miss now, what looks like his entire rookie season with that MCL injury, that's a tough one, even if he was not going to be a part of their immediate plans, in part because they had two guards they already felt really, really good about. Let's talk about those rookie quarterbacks. anybody you want to start with anybody who's any performance of all of them that you thought was more notable than the others they all kind of fall

into a similar bucket I mean if you're asking me in particular I know we don't have to qualify it we all know we know what the score we know what the score is but I don't know how you couldn't be excited by what Ty Simpson did for the Rams on Saturday afternoon

even if you like I'm not saying it was the most impressive thing that ever happened but if that's your day you, it's pretty damn good in my opinion. And I was so happy for the guy. I think there's a lot going on with this. So he averaged 5.4 air yards per attempt, right? It was a lot of boots. It was a lot of easy completions.

Oh, no. The Rams coaching staff put their rookie quarterback who only started 15 games in a good position in his first NFL action. That's, what are we doing? What a travesty? I think there's context around the numbers themselves, the 21 of 25. There were a lot of easy completions.

The final touchdown drive that he had was impressive. There were some ripped throws on that final touchdown drive. That was really the moment where you saw him stack a couple completions in a row that were really impressive. I honestly think more than Ty Simpson's performance, which like you said at the beginning, they acquitted themselves. And that's what you want to see from the young guys. As long as it's not a disaster, it's like box checked, good job. What I honestly think is more interesting about that.

that game is not necessarily how Ty Simpson played. It's the fact that Stetson Bennett played at all. It's the fact that Stets and Bennett didn't play that great. Because, I mean, he had even his combination of attempts. So he had six dropbacks. It was the same type of like easy move, you know, play action underneath stuff that Ty Simpson had. And in Stets and Bennett's couple opportunities to actually like have some dropbacks

and let things go, he did not look as good. He had a couple like questionable choices that Ty Simpson had. Simpson really didn't have in his time when he was in the lineup. And so what I think is interesting here is that I don't know how settled this is. Like there was a stretch early in camp where it felt like Stetson Bennett was going to be the backup for this team because of where Ty Simpson was. I don't know how much that's changed. I was there a couple weeks ago.

But the way that Ty Simpson looked yesterday, it seems like the idea that Stets and Bennett played in the game at all and Ty Simpson looked as good as he did, is there maybe more of a question about who the backup quarterback? for this team is going to be by the time the preseason is over. We're going to find out over the course of the next week because if you look, if you think about it, they handled it just remove Matthew Stafford from the equation and they handled it as if Stetson had the clear like he's the clear backup going into this game. It's like, all right, we'll give the quote unquote starter or the two in this case a series or

to shake the rust off and see what he can do. And then it's Ty Simpson's time, which I love by the way, I love the idea that at least to start with, the Rams are like, we've got a guy here we feel good about who's been here for a minute. We don't have to even thrust Ty into the backup job if we don't want to. We can slow play this as much as we want. And then this game probably, I don't want to say it opened eyes because clearly the Rams like Ty Simpson. But when you play what like when you do that in your first opportunity, I think people in the building are probably looking around like, okay, kids got like kids a gamer.

that this was a great first step. Like this met or exceeded expectations. And so do we need to build off of that? And if this continues into the next week or two, maybe this really is a competition, depending on on how Stetson plays in the next opportunity. But yeah, I think you're right. Like going into this game,

the pecking order seemed pretty clearly defined that ties not even the backup. And I'm curious to see how much this progresses over the course of the preseason. because like preseason playing time will tell you that story. Like if the Rams are having second thoughts about the way they want to do that. And Jimmy Garoppel is still out there. And I think that's a worthwhile thing to mention when it comes to how this backup quarterback

job may shake out. If there's a stretch where Matthew Stafford's going to miss eight games for whatever reason, I wouldn't be surprised if the Rams call Jimmy Garoppel just to try to keep their season on the rails. But right now, it does seem like maybe Ty Simpson has a better shot at the backup job than it seemed early in training camp. And Gamer, I think, is a good way to put it because there are things that he did during that game that

really you can only appreciate in a game. The two things that stick out, there was a weirdly nice play that he had where there was a wide shotgun snap and he corralled it. Like, it could have been a terrible play and he actually made it a manageable play. And then there was a play with a ton of pressure

where he escaped late and turned it into a positive play. And he can do that kind of stuff. And that's just something you're not going to appreciate during practice, but it's stuff that you can notice during a game. And so gamer is probably an overused term when it comes to these situations, but I think in this exact case,

that matters. Like, that's exactly the type of stuff that sticks out. I know exactly the play. It was the late third quarter. And I remember, because like, I'm invested in Tye's success. I want him to be good. I don't care who knows it. And when that pressure came at him and the play was clearly going sideways and he's just bailing deep

to get away from it, I was like, this is bad, this is bad. This is where the terrible play is going to come. And I think I think the throw he made wound up picking up like three yards. But the fact that it wasn't just a disaster made me so happy. And yeah, like we don't have to, we don't have to overreact to what it was. I know that it was a lot of boots and he was living in the flat for the vast majority of the day. But that's, if that's your first showing in NFL action, even if it's the preseason, I think you should be proud of that. A couple of those crossers all play action were impressive. I mean, that's,

crosser to press lead that he hit i mean it was two on the touchdown drive like he had back to back throws on the touchdown drive that were just like yes tie that's what i liked about you on the other side it and most the rookies are going to be what i'm interested in here like for the most part because they're guys we've never seen before you saw the giddy up from our mason thomas in this game a couple different times where it's like uh-oh like they just have not had a lot of that sort of juice off the edge and it's preseason whatever but we've heard that we've seen glimpses of that during training camp and during practice. And so you saw it again this weekend where that's just hopefully a little bit of pop

in that edge rotation that this team has been missing for a little while. So the other rookie quarterbacks, Drew Aller and who else did you want to hit? Drew Aller is probably the main one. And it's all the same stuff we just said about Ty. The thing that really stood out to me about Drew Aller, it's not really any of the throws that he made. It's mainly he just, he looked like he knew what he was doing. which if you want to if you want to call that a low bar you can but i watched drew aller at

penn state and i don't think like you shouldn't ignore that you shouldn't ignore that drew aller just looked clean like his getting to the line and getting the getting everything right and his just mechanics dropping back and you could watch him making his decisions and okay okay that's not there Riley's open in the flat that's where i need to go and it looked very smooth it didn't look jittery. It didn't look like he was panicking. And maybe that's because they were playing against the twos and the threes. And it's a vanilla scheme. I understand it's going to get harder. But Drew Aller was so chaotic and Penn State was so up and down during times of his career, particularly last year before he got hurt. So I was watching him on Thursday night and say what you will about

Mike McCarthy. I was just like, yeah, Mike's been working with him just about the process of playing quarterback. That was my takeaway, and I thought it was very encouraging. No real sprays. I mean, he had the go balls on the right side line that I think the receiver got a little bit jammed up, but that wasn't a bad ball. And the play that stuck out to me, you talk about just calm and looking like he was not out of sorts. Jonathan Gann was dialing up a little bit in that game. And there was an unblocked pressure coming off the left side that he replaces just on time. It was exactly where to go with the ball. And so as a box checking exercise, I think it was good.

It was encouraging. I think that was the case for a lot of these rookie quarterbacks. I would agree. Okay, but before you, I want, this is where I, this is the main thing I was burning up to talk about, to be honest with you, is Packers Steelers, for one reason that feels very real and we don't have to overreact at all. And it's something Matt LaFleur said after the game, which is that Yeager Burton is going to make it incredibly different. on the Packers coaching staff to decide the left guard job when Aaron Banks is healthy. And then they asked about Aaron Banks's health. And he was like, you'd have to ask him, I don't, I don't really know.

And the other quote that stood out was he's about Aaron Banks. He was like, he just hasn't been out there. And I've been around enough coaches to know if, if you love and believe in your $70 million player, you don't say that. you don't say any of that shit. And so I came out of Thursday being like, wow, Matla Fleur sounds pissed at Aaron Banks

and maybe the Packers are going to put some youngsters on their offensive line. And finding a quality left guard in the fifth round of the draft would be peak Packers. But that like really jumped out on my radar. But you could go that. You'd go one of two ways there. You could frame it as finding a quality guard in the fifth round of the draft or you could frame it as, man,

this Aaron Banks thing is a bad, bad situation. You could go one of two ways with that. And you look at it, the 2025 Packers Free Agent class was Nate Hobbs for 12 million a year and Aaron Banks for 19 million a year. Doesn't look good. All time, rough one potentially, if we get to a point before the season where your fifth round rookie is starting over the guy that you paid $19 million a year. And it was only $27 million guaranteed, but that was in part because if they had moved on

after this season, I believe they could have gotten out. but they chose not to do that. And so now they're on the hook for that. Aaron Banks right now has a $12 million cap hit in 2026. And they would have to make him like a post-June 1st cut, I believe, next year in order to save money. That's rough. Extremely rough.

I saw those quotes come across my timeline and I was like, holy shit. Matt LaFleur is upset about his left guard situation. And the first thing I did when I heard. heard that too was I popped on the all 22 of Yeager Burton's performance. I was like, all right, let's see what this was all about. And it's like 25 snaps, but it was pretty good, I thought. Like he, you showed some nice anchor in the past game, sealed some guys off. Like, he's not getting bullied. And, and he was going against, maybe not the Steelers starters. Like, I don't think Hayward was in there, but like, he was going against YA Black for a good

chunk of it. And it wasn't perfect by any means, but I was like, okay. There seems to be something here. I don't know if it's worth benching your $70 million left guard, but okay. The sheer depth on the Steelers defensive line, they just gave Keanu Benton $18 million a year. We got Wyatt Black's probably going to be the starting nose on that team. You got Keanu Benton, you got Derek Harmon, you got Cam Hayward, you got all the edge guys. I mean, it's just, if that all comes together with Harmon being healthy this year, and now you have four interior defensive linemen you feel good about, and three edge guys plus whatever,

you get from Jack Sawyer. Like it's just, that's a group that has a chance to be really, really impactful over the course of this season. All right,

let's take our first quick break and then come back and chat. I think about the rookie receivers that we saw this weekend. So I'm trying to, I'm sure that somebody who's more in tune

with like, with psychology and knows all the terminology and how certain biases creep up into our thinking would know the name to put on this. I wonder if I noticed

all of the mid-round rookies making plays because they've been making plays in training camp and I know to look for it or because they're just making more plays than a collection of mid-round rookies would make. You got what I'm saying? Like, Jacoby Lane, Caleb Douglas, DeJohnne Stribling,

like we've talked about them so much over the course of training camp so far for whatever reason that they're on the mind. And then I think I was just more, maybe I was more attuned to noticing when they were making plays in this game. Stribling had seven catches. Like we would notice that, whatever.

But I don't know if the Caleb Douglas catch quite crosses the timelines in the same way if Caleb Douglas wasn't one of the conversations about Dolphins training camp. Oh, I don't think I agree with that just because Caleb Douglas's catch was sick. I mean, like that would have been a standout from the weekend no matter what. I'm open to either answer. I just, I'm wondering if this is a product partially of how much we're talking about these guys. It was a sick catch. But it is in a continuation of the conversation that we've been having about Caleb Douglas.

or that other people have from the start. He looks like he's going to be a starter on this team. And when they were out with the ones, it was him and Malik Washington with Malik Willis. And that's what we're rolling with. So it really does seem like Hale Douglas is going to get some chances here on that very young Dolphins offense. I'm glad you brought this up because that's another thing I was buzzing to talk about.

I had the time of my life on Saturday morning rewatching Kaden Proctor in this Dolphins Commanders game. The offensive line is, what you they were promised to be in week one of the preseason there's a lot of ass kicking up there kaden proctor was just walking people out of the frame snap after snap and like the whole offensive line looked solid but he's the rookie he's the guy that's going to get a lot of attention and i was watching that first drive just like oh man if this offensive line is healthy and playing like this I'm really excited to watch the dolphins.

Yeah, I mean, that's the argument for why this dolphin's offense could just be so much more competent and so much more enjoyable than a team with their over, under might suggest. And it's that the offensive line has a chance to be a good, fun, young unit combined with Devon H.N. being awesome. Like, that is the argument for why the dolphins could be an eminently watchable team this year. And so far, so good on that. I think the early returns are what you'd hope they would be. But yeah, Caleb Douglas had his moment. Talked about stribling. I mean, there's a couple of those catches from striblingers underneath plays.

But that goal ball down the right side line, it's like, all right. Like, I can get on board with that. You see the acceleration. You see kind of the easy speed for a guy that big. And then the adjustment to that ball to come back to it on like essentially a back shoulder throw. That's a really impressive play. And it's, Deshaun Shribling is going to get every chance to be a part of this offense, considering the state of the wide receiver depth chart.

And so to see him come out and be able to do some of that stuff early on, it's a good thing if you're an Iners fan. I was going to say not to take any credit away from him, but the opportunity in San Francisco is so glaring. And so Jersan Stribling can take that and run with it. I do love, and it's similar for Jacoby Lane, too. I just love when you seamlessly take it to the game because Jacoby Lane is already one of the biggest training camp legends in Baltimore

more Ravens history. And it's easy to cynically turn on the game and be like, all right, Jacoby Lane, like, let's let's see it. And like, you know, how many opportunities are you really going to have? And straight away, Jacoby Lane had a catch on one of the first two possessions of the Ravens night. And then obviously he scored a nice little touchdown. And it's just, it's great when it's that seamless. Because I've seen plenty of young receivers who, for whatever reason, it doesn't translate immediately to from practice to preseason game. And so to just to check those boxes subsequently is always really fun. And in particular, Baltimore and San Francisco are teams where the opportunity is there for you if you can keep making the most of it.

Kobe Lane, I think the argument for why he has such an opportunity in Baltimore. And Lamar said it during the broadcast. They were interviewing Lamar during the broadcast. And he's like, we need a player like this. just a guy who has these sorts of hands and go up and get the ball. He's such an easy catcher of the football. It's so natural to him. And you saw it, I think, in two specific cases in that game.

One, there's a ball that's a little bit behind him, and he's able to go full extension and go get it. And then on the touchdown, how smoothly he transitions into being a runner because of how natural of a catcher he is. Like, there's just no thought that has to go into him plucking the ball out of the air and transitioning into being a runner on that.

play and so you know it's two plays but like you said to translate what's been happening in practice into the game and to show why he is the sort of player and has a sort of skill set that they want to be seeking out and haven't really had to exactly what you want and so it really does feel like we're going to see some jacobi lane and some caleb douglas over the course of this season because they're making the most of those of those opportunities and stripling as well Jacobi Lane in live action looks like he's doing the combine gauntlet drill where it's just like fom and it just looks effortless coming into his hands it's great speaking of receivers we didn't hit this during the game but it was exciting to see

will jack bash action with the raiders jack bash doing the stuff that you should act you should ask jack bash to do and him looking decent at it that was nice preseason's great because we say all this shit and And so I'm rooting for all of my guys and I'm happy when they do well and I'm upset when they don't do well. But then I'm just mentally, we do so many shows together. I know the guys you like too. And when Jack Bess does something, I'm like, oh, Maze is loving that wherever he is, whatever training camp he's at tonight.

It's not even that I like Jack Besh. I just looked at the way they used him last year and I looked at the player Jack Besh for us. And it was just one of the easiest dot connecting exercises where you just think, okay, He's going to be used the way you should use a player like this. I assume he will look different. And it's one preseason game, but that's exactly what happened. You see him working out of the slot. You see him on some of this underneath stuff.

You see him in some of these condensed formations, being able to use the space and being able to use his physicality. I don't know if Jack Bess is going to be a superstar. He was playing a shitload in that preseason game. But he's just one of those guys that I think he's just going to be a different sort of player filtered through these offensive ideas that Clint Kuback is going to bring along. And so far, that's exactly what has happened. I do think Thursday night gave me confidence in Fernando Mendoza to play sooner rather than later,

which is sort of the opinion that I've had all along. But the offense looked nice when Kirk Cousins was out there. Like they just, I mean, they just zipped right downfield and it just looked like such a button down unit, which the cool thing about the Raiders is you can make all the preseason qualifications you want. After last year, you're not taking it. that for granted if you care about the Raiders. Like to see them zip down the field for a touchdown in any setting had to have been a breath of fresh air.

The other pass catcher I wanted to mention in the Ravens game, Matthew Hibner had a couple big plays, their fourth round tight end. And why I think that's worth mentioning. So he had a big explosive completion on an out and up. They designed a screen for him. You see the athleticism. And I do think that's important because if you look at that tight end room with the Ravens, there's real opportunity.

Durham Smythe is somebody they brought in in free agency. Durham Smyth was definitively the Bears third tight end for Declan Doyle last year when he was the O.C. for the Bears. I think they would love to have a little bit more pop and athleticism

in that room because they are going to be a multi-tight-end team. If you can have Durham Smyth get to a point where, all right, he's now like our two, three, we use him as a Y just because we don't have that body type and skill set. because that's not really what Mark Andrews does.

Like, I do think that as I looked at that room coming into it, the fact that Smyth was definitively the number two, knowing the way they probably want to play, it seemed like those young tight ends, the rookie tight ends, were going to get chances. And so to see Hibner make the most of that chance, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually gets a decent amount of run this year

simply because of how thin that room is and just the way they want to play on offense. It's going to be fun to watch. We made so much about how deep the tight end classes. and so if that holds true, obviously some really good tight ends got drafted in slots where maybe you don't have high expectations for them. Like, Hibner is a great example where it's like, well, he's a fourth round rookie, how much opportunity, how quickly can he come along? But if this class lives up to the hype, then you could see guys like that. I mean, we talked so much about Jackson Hawes last year.

I feel like there's the potential for like four or five of those guys to break out this year where maybe their profiles not very high heading into training camp and all of a sudden there are guys that their teams are counting on midway through the year. I mean, I know guys get more playing time in these settings, but man, the tight ends were all over the place this weekend all the way down the line. Like all these guys that got drafted were doing stuff right off the bat from, I mean, you're just talking about Hibner, Max. Claire was the beneficiary of a lot of Ty Simpson's targets. Morgan Klein. Martin Klein. That big scene stretch completion.

Yep. I mean, they were all over the place. The thought process I would take to it is that if you're going to have more tight ends in the field, the tight ends can be a little bit more specialized, right? If you're going to be in 13 personnel, like what Terrence Ferguson was for the Rams last year, where we need a tight end that's a vertical presence that can stretch the field if we're going to start playing this way. Well, if we're going to have three tight ends in the field and you are, are more of a past catcher and we have big body guys that can do some of the other things,

is that a way for you to get on the field? Like, Marlon Klein's a perfect example. Brevin Jordan is somebody that has a little bit of athleticism. You can throw some slide routes to him. But if you look at the makeup of the Texans' tight end room, they don't have somebody that can run like Marlon Klein. Like, Dalton Schultz is a short area player. That's not what Cade Stover is.

And that's definitely not what Foster Moreau is. And so to have like a six-six guy that can get down the field, and be that seam stretcher if you need him to, that's potentially away from Marlon Klein to get on the field because even in the complexion of that room with five different tight ends in it, he adds a slightly different element than the other guys do. Sticking with rookies just really quickly,

sticking with rookies on the Texans. Kulin Rutledge in there with the ones at center. So that seems like it's probably going to be happening. He lined up with the starting offense as the starting center, so it seems like that's going to be what we roll with in Houston, which that's something that I was looking at. was watching the young offensive lineman in Detroit. Blake Miller looked solid,

played a ton in that game at right tackle. And then the other part of it that I think is worth looking at, Seth McLaughlin probably has a chance to play for the Lions, given the Cade May's injury and the fact that he's going to miss such a chunk of the season. And I really liked going back and watching the Seth McLaughlin tape. That game happened early. And so I was at Bengals camp yesterday. I couldn't really watch those games.

But I was at the airport on Friday night. it's just queuing up Bengals, lions, and just going back and watching the offense. And I really enjoyed some of this stuff I saw from McLaughlin. I'm glad you brought that up because Derek and I talked about the Cade May's injury before, like on Thursday, before the game started. And a few hours later, I was like, oh, shit, we talked a lot about Juice Scruggs, but we didn't really talk about Seth McLaughlin. And lo and behold, he's out there with the ones looking perfectly solid. And I'll be interested to see how that looks. Like, whether that's his job to take and run with or whether that's the first step in evaluating multiple options.

But for, I mean, we knew about Blake Miller, obviously, but like for the amount of youth that they're asking to perform, I thought it was a nice first step. Let's take one more quick break. And we'll chat a little bit about some more of these games. Let's stick with that Bengals Lions game. I want to talk a little bit about the Bengals Under Center experiment that we got our first glimpse into. too early in that game. It was a little bit, little hit or miss. We had some good, some bad.

First completion, chunk dig to Jamar Chase. That's what you wanted to look like. And then Joe Burrow takes a sack a little bit later. So what did you think of the New Look Bengals offense in your first glimpse that you got of it? I choose to recognize the dig and ignore the two-man route concept on play action. That's how I feel. And I also, I love when a play like that happens with somebody. It's a high profile moment.

Anybody who really follows the NFL is going to key in on it immediately. And everybody's just like, well, Dalton Rizner screwed up. And then everybody else is like, it's completely Joe Burroughs fault. And then more people yet are like, why are there only two guys out in the route? What the hell is going on? And the whole thing seemed bad across the board to me. It was there yesterday. I asked about the play.

and I think it actually is a cool microcosm of what's happening because the play that goes poorly is just a wrong call into the wrong moment. Like it's just, that's one of those plays you just lose with scheme. Like if they, against that call on that play, if they had anything that was a crossing route or something else, it goes for a touchdown.

It was just the exact wrong call in that situation. And combined with that, what is going to be something this group has to work through, especially as you get into games because you can only work on it so much during training camp. when you've operated out of the gun the way that Burrow has for so long and honestly the way that Chase Brown has for so long, you understand the timing of when you have to release as a back and as a quarterback, you understand the timing of your outlets and where they are at an intimate level.

As you transition into this space, you're less familiar with where those outlets are going to be. You're less familiar with how those outlets are going to get there. and there's just more gray area with the choices that you're making. When you're in the gun, the linebackers can just be a little bit less aggressive and so you have a clear understanding of this guy's coming, this guy's not.

When you're under center, they can hug the line of scrimmage a little bit more and so if you're Trace Brown, there's that little bit of indecision where it's like, should I release, should I not, should I stay in? And so I think that's the type of stuff that they're getting through.

He eventually did get there and Burrow tried to burn it, but there wasn't a clear path to do it because it happened later than it should have. And so I think that's just part of the learning process with this. And I think it's something that they understand is still going to take a little bit of acclimation. They've really leaned into it in the preseason,

I think in part because they know they can do the other stuff. And so the clip that they're doing it with in the preseason in practice, the clip that they're doing it in these games, I think is probably a step beyond what we're going to see when the actual game start. happening simply because they know they need more time on task to get where they want to go with this stuff. That makes perfect sense.

Like work on the thing that you're not comfortable with. And we have so much evidence that the Bengals can do everything they want from the gun. And so it is interesting. It's funny the difference between like, for instance, most defensive coordinators are not going to do their wild shit in a preseason game because you're, you're like you're put like you don't want to put anything too advanced on tape but like the offense I mean first of all at this point it's not a secret that the Bengals are trying to get under center more often they've been telling us that for months you can film practice in

Cincinnati like there's there are no secrets happening like we know what's going on during the practices and it's funny where like defenses will be like we're saving that for games that count and offenses are like we need time on task like screw screw the subterfuge like we got to we got to work on this. And clearly, clearly for the Bengals, like it's still a work in progress. Yeah, I'm not concerned about it.

I think that there are benefits to be found here. A lot of benefits to the run game stuff. I think they've already been realizing them. I think that they're happy with what that looks like. It's just going to be a question of, again, how quickly can we get used to some of the nuances this brings to the passing game

that are just a little bit different? Whenever, any choice you make as an NFL, offense or defense has a price. Any choice you make has a price. The price playing a little bit more under center is that you make things a little bit less clean for your quarterback and some of the other guys making decisions.

But the benefit potentially, and the benefits waiting for you on the other side of it, are such that maybe you're willing to pay some of that price. And I think any time you take a turn as an offense or defense and you start trying new things, you start trying to lean into new things, that's the conversation that you have to have. We're going to have to pay a price for this.

is the price worth paying. And I think the Bengals very much believe that the price is worth paying for them transitioning into a slightly different way of playing on offense. But sticking the ASC North, I mean, when it comes to quarterback play and how important the quarterback play was from these games, the Browns is the most important game. Like that game actually matters for determining who's going to be the starter in Cleveland. We saw a lot of both of those quarterbacks. So what did you think of the performances we got?

from Deshaun Watson and Shador Sanders this weekend. I'm pausing on purpose. I don't, I don't know. I thought you froze. I really did think you froze. You're right that it's important, but, but is it though? I don't know. I mean, like, I only think it's important.

I mean, it's important in that it truly is an open competition where they had not made a decision. They have not made a decision. No, I know. And the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the preseason games we're going to matter here because with Watson specifically, what he looks like in live action because it's a real pass rush, that matters. Like that's where the issues have come when he's been on the field over the last few years,

is that the pocket presence and what he looks like under pressure has been completely untenable. And you can only learn so much about that in practice. And so for him specifically, these games were going to be really important just in determining who was going to play. In the grand scheme of the 2026 NFL season, no, the Browns quarterback competition is not important. I think my ultimate takeaway, like the box score will tell you that Deshawn Watson did not have a bad day. I did not feel as though it was overly good in the moment just watching the game. And I think he navigated the pressure well to a degree, but also had a brutal strip sack in the game. He had a brutal strip sack and I don't think he handled it that well.

I think that any time the Paco's closing in, and it did a lot. And then they were playing when the backup offensive line was in for the Browns, it was a bad situation. Both of those guys were under a decent amount of pressure, as you would be against the ferocious Bears, twos and threes with that defensive front. I don't think he handled it that well. I think that he played fine in a preseason context, but you still saw some of that discomfort and some of that panic may be a strong word,

but when he is under pressure, I think that there is an uneasiness that goes on that you would feel worried about if you were the Browns. And it was better than it's looked in stretches over the last couple years, but I still don't think it was so good that you're like, oh, man, there we go. In live action, he was, we're no longer worried about what that's going to look like. I don't think that was the case. But of course, the case, that's not the case for Shadur either.

Which I appreciated the conversation about Shadur's pick because, like, he did, he processed that play the right way and went to the right place with the ball. But that's not a tenable miss by NFL standards. Like if the DB is catching your pass as though it's coming off a jugs machine. And I know the weather in Chicago has been crappy all week. I know the conditions. But guess what?

You play in Cleveland, Ohio. So I can't just wave that off as if it doesn't matter. And so the, yeah, it was that was egregious. Dylan Gabriel was egregious. was egregious as well. And that's why I've been billing it as like, I want to be excited about the Cleveland Browns for a lot of reasons, but the quarterbacks are going to hold me back.

And I guess Saturday was just evidence that I was right to feel that way. That's my overall takeaway. As they move through this, I talked about this in the notebook I did earlier this week. I think that there are considerations on other side of the equation. With Watson, he's a better athlete than Chador is, even if he's not a great athlete at this stage of his. career. So if you want to try some of the quarterback run game stuff that you could do with Muck

and Watson is your ability to access that. And I think that some of the things they're asking them to do with the line of scrimmage and just the layers to the offense, Watson came into the league in 2017. Shadur came into the league last year. Watson is better equipped to handle some of that stuff than a second year player is. I think that's the argument for Watson. The argument for Shadur, and you saw this during the weekend, he's just a better thrower of the football than Deshawn Watson is at this stage. I mean, that third and 13 big crosser that he hits, like, that's enough for me just to want to see him.

He throws a whole shot later in the game that's a well-placed ball. I just think that he is a more accurate, more compelling thrower of the football at this stage than Deshaun Watson is. And so even if there are some potential operation benefits to having Deshaun Watson in there, and even if you think Deshaun Watson is a more dynamic athlete than Shador, even if he's not relative to the league at large, I don't know. I think I would rather just see the version of this offense that has Chadour being the thrower that he is. I don't want to intimate that Chadour is going to change the fortunes of the Cleveland Browns franchise or that he's an all pro in waiting.

But I do hope I just I hope the Browns aren't letting their money get mad. I hope I hope Dishon Watson isn't going to win this job by default because people in Cleveland or a very important person in Cleveland can't. handle letting that paycheck sit on the bench because that that money was fully guaranteed it was spent a long time ago and so like to even weigh that as a consideration and i and i don't know that i just hope that that's not the case because even if even if shedure is flawed and doesn't realize the the potential that people had in mind for him i'm way more intrigued to to see what he could do with it and for that matter i like this is down the line but like I hope the Browns are willing to do some shit for Taylin Green as well.

Like I know they're trying to sort out the starting quarterback competition, but call it what it is with Cleveland right now and like turn over every stone. Like I don't think you need to be worried. Like I'm not worried about September of 2026 trying to sort out the Cleveland Browns quarterback problems. And so I would look at Taylor green. I'm looking forward to Shadur getting a chance to start. this upcoming game now that we know that's how they're going to handle it.

I just, yeah, I hope they don't let the investment they made in Watson predetermined this thing. I don't think the process matters because I don't think that either of these guys is going to be the long-term answer, a quarterback for the Browns. Like the idea of, we got to see what we have just in case. That doesn't matter to me. This is mostly for my own personal enjoyment when I have to watch the Cleveland Browns play football this year. And there are exciting young skill position players on the Cleveland Browns. I would like that to be the most enjoyable process possible.

And I just think that might involve Shador Sanders over to Sean Watson. Even if you're right that seeing what they have ultimately doesn't matter, it's still a more thorough way to approach the situation than just running it back because of expenditures that you made five years ago. If that's the reasoning, absolutely. You'd rather just see what you have. But this to me is more about what is the, Brown's offense look and feel like week to week in part because the young guys are exciting.

And we saw that. Like we saw both guys. And the first Denzel Boston catch in that game is exactly what they've been seeing in training camp. Like it's he moves really well for a big man. And I think that has stood out to people. But in talking to one of the coaches there, it's some of the subtleties that he's bringing to the position where you see him do things that just are the qualities that good receivers have. And that plays exactly the right example.

he uses his offhand to create a little bit of separation at the top of the route and then you see him coming back to the ball and being friendly to the quarterback like those types of things have just happened a lot and that's just the type of stuff you want to see from a young receiver where it's like those are the little elements to your game that allow you to be a productive player early in your career and denzo boston's been doing a lot of that stuff Casey Concepcion just has it he's my man I mean the don't forget the punt return on top of all of the touches on offense. Like he just has this magnetism when he has the ball.

I, he was, I joked. I mean, my two favorite players in this year's draft were both drafted by the Browns in the first round. Spence, Spencefano and Casey Concepcion. And so the fact that both those guys, or both the receivers had their moments, I'm excited to watch that group moving forward. And then the other guy in that game that I wanted to mention before we moved on, Jordan Vanderberg, Bears' sixth round rookie. he that's a real thing he i think he has a chance to get on the field this year and you saw it i mean

he had a couple pass rush reps against the brown's number two offensive line where you see the explosion you see the bend i mean he's really stood out over the course of camp and he had a few pressures in this game i think he has a chance to get on the field sooner rather than later and you saw why i really so i really enjoyed jack sandborne just getting his powers back now that he's back in the Midwest like he just needed to be in Chicago. A couple more games to get through here pretty quickly. Panthers bills, I mean, some of the stuff that I thought was notable, Tedder and Roll McMillan played in the slot on like five of his seven snaps and

11 personnel. Hayden Winks had that. I went back and watched all of those plays. So when they were in 11 personnel, you had T-Mack in the slot in ways that he just wasn't last year. I think we're going to see a lot more of that. And then when the bill's number one defense was out there, first play, 12 personnel from Carolina. We talked about this last week.

Landon, Lennon Jackson is that four eye across from at Oliver with Dale and Walker out there. And so I was wondering if he was going to have a chance to be that third interior defensive lineman in some of those base down looks. And as of right now, it looks like he's going to have a shot to do that. Did you, I mean,

were you encouraged by your first look at the bill's defense that you know show is what it is? They had like one blitz from Terrell Bernard. I think that they're going to be doing a lot of crazier shit when we get into the preseason. Dale Walker continues to be a really intriguing player, though. I mean, he had multiple plays against the run after a really strong rookie year. And so if he can continue to ascend a little bit and we get that Oliver that the bills are hoping we get this year, it's just a unit I'm excited to watch.

And unfortunately now it's a unit that I have some investment in after taking them in the defensive draft. I didn't envy Bryce Young having to do that without. I don't like, he didn't have either of his starting guards in that game. No. That's a problem. That's something I'm watching. Robert Hunt has, he had back issues earlier in this camp.

Like, Damien Lewis is a little bit banged up. I'm getting to a point now where I'm starting to worry a little bit. And it's too early maybe to get there. But if we're having another season where we got guys in and out of the lineup for that Panthers offensive line, that's, that's something I got an eye on. It's really all I had. The other note I had, Bud Clark played into the second half in that Seahawks game. So the safety they drafted in the second round,

Tyo Kata did not play. So he sat with the rest of the starters. Does that give us any indication of what that competition looks like at this stage? Like is Taya Okata kind of firmly entrenched as the other starting safety next to Julian Love for the Seahawks? But that that's really the only thought that I had other than the stuff that we talked about. Is there anything else that you wanted to hit? One more big one, which it's a downer note to wrap this up on. But it could potentially be a big deal.

You can laugh at me for saying that. but I think it really, really sucks that Jamal Adams is seemingly done for the year after getting, you know, he had a non-contact injury in the Giants Vikings game. I haven't heard an official diagnosis, but nothing coming out of the injury sounded good. And he showed you right before he got hurt, he had a TFL where he just bolted through the gap and made a fantastic tackle. I really think Jamal Adams could have had a fun, useful role for Brian Flores. And I think we said it when he signed that deal. Like, this is a defense and a defensive coordinator where I can get excited about what

Jamal Adams might look like in 2026. And I think Flores would have found a way to blitz him a lot, use him as a guy that's going to get into the backfield and disrupt things. And I don't know if it makes or breaks the Vikings defense, but it would have been a fun piece for Flores to work with. And it sucks that it's not going to materialize. I mean, Kevin O'Connell kind of alluded, implied as much. And he was talking about it afterwards.

like he had really started to carve out a role and now they're just going to not have him for the entire season. One other thing I wanted to bring up, talking about downers, what do you think of the Cam Ward performance that we got? I'm trying not to think about it, to be honest with you. That's kind of why I wanted to bring it up. Our buddy Jeff Schwartz said this and I think he's completely right. Like the way to look at preseason is if a guy plays well, okay, good. Check the box. You didn't embarrass yourself.

It's good, but let's not overreact. let's move on to the next thing. If a guy plays like shit, that's troubling. And I mean, it's not just Cam Ward. It was the Titans entire offense. But yeah, it freaked me out if I'm being honest. Yeah, it's not great.

It's not great. I mean, that that's coming off the season that he had last year, the fact that we got some decision-making issues, the fact that we had some accuracy stuff like that. That's not the first glimpse you want of Cam Ward in 2026. I'm not going to get overly concerned about it. it's one preseason game, but I think that's a good way to look at it. Like, there are guys who you walk away from what happened this weekend.

It's like, great. Enjoyed what I saw. It's exactly what you'd want to see. And the fact that Cam Ward is not among that group, it's a little bit concerning. It's not really concerning, but it's a little bit concerning. It's not good. It's not the end of the world. There's more preseason football to play.

But like my, it's the meme of the guy being like, I pretend I don't see it. Like, I'm just like, all right, throw this in the trash. cam and let's not let's not do this again next week please if there's any solace to be found i thought j c latham had some really impressive reps early in the game on the ground and so i that's one where again we've talked about this carvin bestill is a really good offensive line coach that they brought with him to tennessee they he got the most side of that group with the giants and so jc latham is somebody that talk about fork in the road type seasons like this really does feel like one for jc lathem and so to see him come out and be moving people even if it was against backups in a preseason game

It's a nice note on which for him to start this season. I do. Okay, I have a couple other positive notes we can get out of here on. A couple of leftovers that we didn't hit. Jonah Coleman looked awesome for Denver. Jonah Coleman looked so good. That's my guy. He's so physical.

And it's not a huge sample size, but just a couple of the runs he ripped off for the Broncos. Made me really excited for him. And then I know, I know every team probably had an undrafted free agent that got their fans excited. in the first weekend of the preseason, but two that really stood out for me, Aden Garns,

who played in the, he played in the same secondary as Trayden Stukes and Genesis Smith at Arizona. UDFA for the Buccaneers. He had a pick six of Bailey Zappy and also had a phenomenal tackle for loss. Explosive TFL. I was going back and watching Josiah Trotter and I was like, oh man,

Aidan Garns, get it. Aidan Garns. And I only bring this up because Bucks people are like, oh, he's he's on the team now. Like it was that's like, you know, this is a guy that's been putting good days together at Bucks camp. And the same thing could be said, saved the best performance for last. Camden Brown for Dallas, who I follow Dallas very, very closely. And Camden Brown had not leapt out on my radar at all, undrafted free agent out of Georgia State for the Cowboys. he put on a performance in Seattle on Saturday night.

He had two just phenomenal. He had a one-hander and like a fail-marry contested catch touchdown, just posterizing people all over the place. And the people that I've talked to in Dallas are like, oh, yeah, he's been doing this all month. So two guys that made strong cases for going from undrafted to the final roster. The defense for the Cowboys, it's one preseason game, but it looks like an adult operation.

it does, but I'm just disappointed that Caleb Downs only got like six snaps. Isn't that a good thing? Yeah, isn't that a good thing? It's like, he's a rookie. Think about how much some of the other rookies played. And they're like, uh-uh, this guy, six, six plays and you're on ice, my friend. I was so pissed, speaking about the bucks, I was so pissed off because the bucks didn't even suit up Ruben Bain.

And I was like, what are, like, come on. I want to see the rookie. Like, let's see the hot shot rookie. And then I was like, well, if the bucks are so impressed that they don't think he even needs snaps right now, that's probably a good thing. So, yeah, in the big picture, you're right. But I just, I want to see some fun shit. All right. That is all we've got from weekend one of the preseason.

One, a quick bit of housekeeping. September 1st, Tuesday at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, our next live show doing the Winspool draft live. please if you have not gotten your tickets and you're in the Chicago land area or you're a quick drive away, we would love to see you that night. We'll do some Q&A afterwards. We'll do some little meet and greet

afterwards at the venue. We'd love to see you guys. We'd love to meet you guys. Tickets are available now on the Lincoln Hall website and in the description below. That's where you can find a link to those in the description below

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