I’ve got 17 teams down on my camp tour, and I’ll see five more this week. So we’re rolling along, and have a full set of MMQB takeaways from my quick break from (not work but) the road …
Sam Darnold at 28 years old, with the Seahawks, is a pretty interesting story. He was 20 when he was drafted No. 3 in 2018. He’s entering his eighth season and is now with his fifth team. He’s been called a bust and a reclamation project, and now has a chance to be what the Jets drafted him to be in 2018.
Which, of course, is a franchise quarterback.
Talk to him, and he’ll tell you he’s way more equipped to get there than he ever was before and it’s largely because of, not in spite of, the experiences (and failures) he had over the past seven seasons, experiences that brought him to the time and place he’s in now. I could tell, too, how happy and content he is after being there last week. It wasn’t hard to see it on his face, four months after a series of twists and turns in mid-March delivered this result.
“It just made sense,” Darnold told me. “The Geno [Smith] trade went down, I thought, O.K., this could be an interesting place. Then, with the conversations my agent was having with people in the front office, it all kind of made sense to me. Obviously, there were a couple other teams, which I won’t get into detail about. But, yeah, I’ll just say it made a ton of sense.”
If Darnold’s trajectory over the past few years is any indication of his job security, Seattle’s investment in—and gamble on—the signing does, too. The Seahawks are going to give him the runway that the Vikings couldn’t promise and, finally, provide him a very real shot at being someone’s long-term answer at the most important position on the field.
If you dig deeper, there are a few more reasons this one could, maybe even should, work for everyone involved.
First, there was the experience Mike Macdonald had coaching against Darnold, which he says now gave him the ability to see the quarterback’s presence and physical capabilities in a way you wouldn’t be able to just by watching the tape. It goes back to Darnold’s time with the Jets, and Macdonald’s time as a Baltimore assistant. It also included an end-of-game cameo Darnold made on Christmas 2023 at the finish of a Ravens’ rout of the 49ers.
“Trust me, it’s never garbage time,” the Seahawks coach said. “We’re calling it to stop them, we’re not trying to give up anything, but you’re right. He came in, I thought he played decisive, he was accurate, and they moved the ball on us, quickly. I mean, he hit a couple ’hots’ that pierced us, the in-cuts, they threw the one touchdown that crossed our safety’s face in the red zone, which was a great ball. And then the interception he threw, that’s a ball he has to throw, last play of the game to try to score points. Our guy made a great play. …
“I remember just like, Dang, O.K., feeling like I could feel him in the game.”
He felt Darnold last year, too, after the quarterback left San Francisco for Minnesota, and he threw for 246 yards, three scores and a 112.3 passer rating in Seattle, culminating with a four-play, 70-yard drive in the game’s final five minutes (capped by a wild 39-yard touchdown throw to Justin Jefferson) to beat Macdonald’s Seahawks in Week 16.
By then, everyone knew how far Darnold had come. But he’ll concede now he could feel the progress going back to the end of his final year in Carolina, and even more so in that short prime-time stint against the Ravens—he knew he was seeing the game faster, and playing faster, and so much was a result of finding a fit in Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers offense. Which brings us to two other pieces of the equation.
The Niners’ pass-game coordinator that year was Klint Kubiak, hired this offseason as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, and the prospect of that reunion was no small part of Darnold’s decision to go to Seattle. He had a real comfort level in San Francisco, and Kubiak had a role in that.
So, too, did Brock Purdy, whom Darnold played behind with the Niners. In Purdy, he saw a guy able to block out everything around him and play ball. So Darnold tried to do the same.
“I’ve always been introverted, I grew up as a shy kid, so that’s kind of who I am naturally,” Darnold said. “For me it was always, I was very worried about what my teammates or what people thought about me. And I think when all the stuff happened in New York and then some stuff happened in Carolina—good, bad, ugly, those three years in New York, the two years in Carolina, then I was like, Dude …”
“And then I go to San Francisco and, to be honest, I saw Brock operate and he’s just a very about-his-business kind of guy. He was just, every single day, come in, same routine, same deal, he wasn’t very vocal and he would just get the job done. And I realized like O.K., I can just be myself.”
In an interesting way, that translated to the field, too.
No longer consumed with winning big on every play, and content to run the offense, Darnold linked up with Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell at pretty much the exact right time. And Darnold followed his direction to the point where, when I asked, the play he remembered most as indication of his ascension as a quarterback was a simple checkdown on a four-verticals concept in the third quarter of a vital Week 17 win.
“I think about this all the time, not to cut you off, but I thought of an example immediately,” he said. “We were playing Green Bay, it was the game my teammates did the whole ‘water shower’ deal after the game. It was in that game when I was playing my most disciplined football, because they were getting into some inverted Cover 2 kind of looks, where they were popping out into shell coverage. Teams were doing that a lot against us, with Jordan Addison and Justin [Jefferson] on the edge. …
“We called a four-verticals pass, up tempo, and on my first hitch, I got it down to the back and Aaron [Jones] got 13 yards. And I don’t know if I make that play early in my career.”
Earlier in his career, Darnold continued, “I’m like, I’m gonna hit the bender and make this sick play, instead of, It’s the third quarter, we’re going up tempo and I’m just gonna hit the freaking check-down [on second-and-4].”
The Jones play was a key on an eight-play, 70-yard drive that put the Vikings up 27–10 in what was a 27–25 win. It was his 14th and final win in Minnesota. Things didn’t go to plan after that, with the Vikings only willing to go so far to keep him, and the rest is history.
Now in Seattle, the Seahawks get a guy who is the product of all those scars—the lessons of New York and Carolina, the growth in San Francisco, and revelation of both in Minnesota.
So how does it feel for Darnold to have his own team again?
“I don’t look at it any different,” he said. “I don’t go about my process any differently. At the end of the day, I am going to do everything I can to control the controllables and, for me, that’s always leading. As a quarterback, like if you’re the guy in the huddle? No matter if you’re the first, second, or third string, if you’re the guy in the huddle, it’s got to be your team in that moment. …
“So the best answer to that is I’ve gotten to know myself really well, and I think that’s kind of helped me, just allowed me to be myself in the locker room, which I think allows me to go out there and play really free. And just be the best player I can be, and that’s it.”
Which has really shown of late, and the Seahawks are betting it’ll continue to show from here on out.
I have a Chargers item to get to here, but first we need to acknowledge the injury to Rashawn Slater. As you probably know by now, it’s a bad one—a ruptured patellar tendon for a big man is not good, and Slater’s a great player and by all accounts a good guy. The silver lining, if there is one, is that the 2021 first-round pick just signed a four-year, $114 million deal, giving him the sort of life-changing money that every pro athlete pursues.
The Chargers are, compared to their peers at least, as equipped to deal with a major tackle injury as anyone. The plan is to slide Joe Alt, the fifth pick in the 2024 draft, back to his natural position after he starred as a rookie at right tackle. At right tackle, the Chargers have experienced options in Trey Pipkins III and Jamaree Salyer. They won’t be as good without Slater, but they’re at least capable of mitigating the damage.
Now, what the injury will do is chip away a little bit at the Chargers’ identity, which was being built through what still is, in a literal sense, a very large football team. The identity, of course, mirrors the way Jim Harbaugh’s always built his teams.
When I saw that team for myself last week, it really jumped out at me how happy Harbaugh seemed, both with his team and station in life. Which led to a fun exchange.
MMQB: It seems like you’re loving coaching this team and being back in the NFL …
JH: It’s just an appreciation, a gratitude for football. I like football, you know? People who like football like me back, and I like them back, and we roll. And sometimes people that don’t like football, they seem to try to avoid me, but it never dampers my spirit. I try to get them to like football. I don’t think I’ve changed a bit, especially once you hit 40 or so, I think you’re who you are.
MMQB: Is there anything you’ve adjusted?
JH: Maybe people see me differently. I know some people are like, God you look so angry. Well, I’m in the middle of a football game. And, I mean, it’s like sitting in a dentist’s chair having someone do a root canal on you; that’s the feeling you have during a game. Parents can understand it, people who have kids that go to their game. A baseball game, O.K., now your kid, he’s at bat with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, or he’s pitching to the top of the order in a tie game. … Whatever that situation is, you want them to do well.
MMQB: But there’s a tension to it …
JH: Well, you just care so much, and you want them to have success. People you care deeply about, if you look a little tense or if you look a little edgy, that’s what it is, Albert. I just love football.
MMQB: It does look to me like that’s reflected in your team today …
JH: I mean, we can be disagreeable, but it’s all those guys …
MMQB: You mean they’re just like that anyway?
JH: Yeah. Derwin [James], I’ve never met anybody who loves football more than him, and more than myself. I just can’t go a day without, Give me some of what you’ve got. You just feed off it. K-Mack [Khalil Mack], he’s that way. How are you 34 years old, but still play like you played when you were 21 at that position? It’s work ethic; it’s putting in the work. Justin Herbert, nobody outworks Justin Herbert. Get on the line and run conditioning with Justin Herbert, if you’re man enough. That’s the stuff I see, I see it every day. And Joe Alt , I mean, he came in here with this work ethic, I’m sure poured into him by his dad. But I’ve seen that work ethic now for a year and now he’s got more strength. He was strong, but he’s stronger, to go with that athleticism that he has. I’m just looking at Quentin Johnston—it’s pretty much everywhere I turn, I could tell you a story—he’s got it all, just needed a little more strength, and he’s added that, through his work ethic, and he looks to me like he’s flying when he’s running his routes, like the feet aren’t even touching the ground, that’s how fast and smooth that it looks. Ladd [McConkey] is that way. Rashawn Slater is an elite, elite worker and trainer, and just so good at his position as well. Daiyan Henley, rising superstar, his energy, his enthusiasm are contagious …
MMQB: It sounds like you love your team?
JH: I do. I do, daily, weekly, monthly, being around [them], and I can take no deep, long bow for that. That was here. The Spanos family, all in the organization, are the ones that should take the deep, long bow for these kinds of competitors. It hit me, maybe like one week into the job, it’s like, Yeah, competitors welcome here at the Los Angeles Chargers. We want to be your friend. We want to get you a ride to the game.
It was two days later, for the record, after this conversation that Slater went down.
Obviously, that was a hit for both the team, and Harbaugh personally.
But I don’t think it should change expectations too much for a Chargers team that, deep down, thinks it improved in virtually every area this offseason. As tough as the injury is, I’m pretty sure it won’t kill Harbaugh’s enthusiasm to go coach that team, either.
In Arizona, I came across one of the more interesting ideas I can remember hearing about player development. It was the concept that bigger, stronger first-round receivers generally take at least a year to develop, whereas the smaller, faster guys taken that high usually hit the ground running, mostly because they can run by people.
This, of course, was in relation to the development of Marvin Harrison Jr.
So I went through and looked it up, looking at bigger-bodied receivers taken in the top 10 of the draft who panned out over the past 20 years. It checks out. Last year, Harrison had 885 yards and eight touchdowns. Drake London, Mike Williams, Micheal Crabtree, Calvin Johnson, Braylon Edwards and Roy Williams all had fewer yards and touchdowns than that as rookies. Meanwhile, Julio Jones (959 yards, eight TDs) and Larry Fitzgerald (780 yards, eight TDs) had very similar Year 1 statistics to Harrison before exploding in Year 2.
Ja’Marr Chase would be the outlier in the group, with 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns in his rookie year. A.J. Green (1,057 yards, seven TDs) and Mike Evans (1,051, 12 TDs) both managed to get over 1,000 yards, but just barely. Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas are two more examples, taken outside the top 10, as bigger guys who didn’t do much as rookies, but became impact guys.
Anyway, I presented the idea to Harrison, and he said it made sense to him, in that a bigger receiver has to become more refined in learning to use his frame, and the offense he’s in, to get open—with winning in contested situations a different animal at the NFL level. For Harrison, that added up to a little more thinking on the field, which slowed him down.
“Obviously, understanding a whole new offense is always an adjustment,” he said. “Being on the same page as the quarterback and adjusting to how Kyler [Murray] likes to play, he has a different kind of play style than [other] quarterbacks, you kind of have to adjust to him as well. Obviously going through the season, not playing in the preseason, I feel like it took us a while. It took seeing at least a couple of games to get the flow of it, and that’s the benefit of preseason, you get to go out there and get your feet wet.
“I didn’t get a chance last year, so I feel like that kind of contributed to it a little bit. But as the year went on, I gained more confidence.”
To that end, he did get his feet wet Saturday night, playing against the Chiefs, and that should help in accelerating his process to start this year. Then, there’s the other thing he did to get his mind right—hiring sport psychologist Justin Anderson.
The goal in doing it? It was pretty much the same.
“I just want to play free,” Harrison said. “Just out there thinking about plays, expectations, where you got drafted, who you are and who you are compared to, all of that, I didn’t want to think about that anymore. I feel like that’s the biggest thing he’s helped me with. And it’s allowed me to go out there and play free, be who I am, and all the work that I’ve put in, I can go out there and showcase it.”
The upshot of all this is that work ethic’s never been a problem for Harrison, so with this plan in place, plus some more good weight on his frame (he’s up to 220 pounds), it’s fair to think he could take big steps after such a purposeful offseason.
If he takes the next steps quickly, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, given the course previously set by the Hall of Famer Johnson, and other guys such as Fitzgerald and Jones who should be there shortly. In Harrison’s mind now, the key to getting there is remarkably simple.
In his words: “Yeah, just play football, be Marvin Harrison Jr., and do the best I can.”
I’d bet that’ll be plenty good enough.
Davante Adams is going to help Matthew Stafford quite a bit. Why do I say that? Because if you go to Rams camp, you can’t go five feet without someone telling you what a huge year the ex-Packer, Raider and Jet is about to have. Even in his 12th year. Even at 32 years old. Even though he’s now three years removed from his last Pro Bowl or All-Pro year.
What the Rams see is the sort of big, outside weapon they haven’t had of late, and a guy who is supremely motivated to show what he’s got left at an age where most wideouts are well into decline. Part of it, per Adams himself, is how his new home has energized him.
To illustrate that, last week, he described a moment from a walkthrough in the spring, where coach Sean McVay was making an adjustment to a play the Rams would generally run from a certain spot on the field. Adams explained how, in running the play from another spot, McVay was explaining to the receiver how their landmark to stop would change. The linemen would, eventually, have to know, too, because it’d change how they fit their blocks. But the linemen, working separately at the time, hadn’t had it explained to them at that point.
“The center actually overheard,” Adams said. “Coleman [Shelton] overheard, got the whole O-line hints to what it was, to get ready to run the play. And Sean kind of realized that he didn’t coach them up, and they were already ready to go. We ran the play and executed it perfectly. He wasn’t even talking to the O-line, so, on paper, they should have been a little bit off on that. But for one guy to hear it, ears up like a German Shepherd, give everyone hints at what’s going on and we run a great play without them even being talked to directly? And these guys are young players? That’s special to see.”
So I asked, that’s culture, right?
“It’s culture,” Adams responded, “and it’s also them doing a good job of identifying the type of players that need to be in the building.”
Now, Adams wanted to be pretty careful in saying none of this is about any deficiency in his previous spots. But it is, to be sure, an indication of what he was looking for in becoming an unfettered free agent for the first time in March.
Specifically, Adams had three criteria for suitors. In no particular order, he wanted a place where he was valued and would fit, a place he could win, and a place with a quarterback.
The above story goes a long way to explain how the first two are in place.
“Honestly, I saw a lot of that in some of the places I was before,” Adams said. “But this is the most optimistic that I’ve been based on what’s truly presented to feel like I’m in the best possible situation to win a championship.”
That’s where the quarterback comes in—Adams calls Stafford a “dog.”
“I’ve just built a respect for him over the years, just how he plays the game, the way he sees it, and it’s just his style,” Adams continued. “He’s just a laid-back, chill dude’s dude and easy to get along with and that’s what I was looking for.”
Add it up, and the Rams are giving Adams pretty much everything he was looking for and, based on how camp’s gone, Adams seems poised to reciprocate that.
I didn’t think that I’d find a team channeling the Michael Jordan Bulls during my training camp trip, but that’s just what the Cowboys are doing. I’ll explain. The head coach, Brian Schottenheimer, was telling me a story about how his legendary dad, the late Marty Schottenheimer, was a “huge importance-of-practice guy.” So, as Brian was in his formative coaching year, that was his baseline. Jordan’s philosophy helped drive it home.
As a big follower of those championship teams, a young Schottenheimer tried to pay attention to what drove them, and study how Jordan and Phil Jackson led them.
“I remember Michael Jordan talking about practice all the time—If you practice the right way … and then Kobe [Bryant] adopted it,” Schottenheimer said. “You practice the right way and games are easy. So we can’t simulate a real game out here like basketball can, because we can’t tackle and things like that, but you can push it, and you can get to the edge.”
The result? Amid the Micah Parsons hold-in, and all the noise that comes with being the Cowboys, Schottenheimer can say now, “We are an excellent, excellent practice team.”
They got there, he continued, because they do the best they can to actually play the sport, getting as close as they can to the way a basketball team would prepare, with more 11-on-11 work than you’d see in most (if not all) other places. The day I was there, a week ago, Dallas had, per Schottenheimer, their first seven-on-seven period of camp.
“I talk to these guys and say what’s going to separate us from the rest of the league is the way we practice,” Schottenheimer said. “It was one of the first things we ever talked about, in one of the first team meetings. And from OTAs, through minicamp to now, the energy and the effort that our guys are practicing with and running? I think we’re one of the few teams that still practices in the offseason program, like, does team (11-on-11). I talk to five or six of my peers, and they’re like, We don’t f—ing practice, we don’t do team anymore, we do seven-on-seven.
“We decided we needed that edge, and so we taught our guys. We defined how practice should run, and this is what shells practice looks like, and this is what a helmets practice looks like, and this is what a padded practice looks like. And these guys have been amazing.”
As a result, Schottenheimer says his team has an edge that he thinks will serve it well.
The expectation is it’ll show up for the Cowboys, whether it’s with Parsons or not (Schottenheimer would rather have him), three weeks from Thursday.
I wouldn’t expect any sort of downtick from the Chiefs. I’m excited to give you guys a little more on where Patrick Mahomes and his teammates are at right now in the coming weeks. But for now, I think there are plenty of reasons to think Kansas City should be better—yes, better—than the team was a year ago. Here’s why …
• Last year, the Chiefs lost Rashee Rice early, didn’t get Hollywood Brown until late, navigated a mess at tackle, lost Isiah Pacheco, and wound up in the Super Bowl. We all know what happened when they got there, but I’m not sure many folks look at all that and consider how resilient the team was, instead of just allowing themselves to become prisoners to the last thing they saw.
• Josh Simmons has been a revelation in camp. He’s taken every first-team rep at left tackle. He hasn’t had to be managed physically, as many big men are coming off a torn patellar tendon. That’s pushed the expected competition from left tackle to right tackle, where Jawaan Taylor and Jaylon Moore are battling. That means Kansas City will have a very expensive swing tackle. After the way things went with the line last year, I’d say they welcome that “problem.”
• Rice has looked fantastic. The Chiefs think he can be a top-10 receiver. Yes, there is the likelihood he’ll be suspended five or six games. Kansas City can make it work until then, and Rice is more than capable of making the wait worth it. Add to that a more experienced Xavier Worthy and (fingers crossed) healthier Brown, and the skill group should be ready to help Mahomes and the coaches reach their stated goal of reigniting the downfield passing game, which will only make Rice and Travis Kelce more dangerous underneath.
• I trust Steve Spagnuolo with another young defense that has some great foundational pieces in Chris Jones, Trent McDuffie, Nick Bolton and George Karlaftis.
Bottom line: It’s a very confident group. So I’d say when we get to late January, and there are only four teams left, it’s a good bet that the Chiefs will be one of them, the same way that they have been the past seven years.
We’ll track Travis Hunter here, just because of his unique situation. For the record, Hunter started on offense, and came out as the left corner with the Jaguars defense on the Steelers’ second offensive possession. He played 11 snaps on offense and five on defense, which was dictated by the length of the two possessions Hunter was in on. He finished with two catches for nine yards, and wasn’t thrown at on defense.
After the game, Liam Coen told reporters he was happy with the performance, and pleased to see Hunter play both positions.
“I think he made a couple good catches on some option routes, missed the one tackle defensively that I noticed,” Coen said. “That was the only thing I noticed about his overall play. In terms of that, I’ll have to watch the tape on how he operated defensively a little bit more, but I thought offensively he made the right decisions on those option routes, made a good catch, almost broke out of that one where Trevor [Lawrence] put it behind him on that third down we talked about.
“But I’ll have to go watch the tape a little bit more to know more.”
My first takeaway is that Hunter’s usage is true to how the Jags said they’d play him—with his primary position, at first, being wideout, and his defensive work coming after that.
My second thought is that Hunter’s snaps came on the game’s first and fourth possessions, so they were spaced out a bit. I do wonder if, just to condition him and see what he’s capable of, the Jags will want to get him in there on, say, four or five consecutive possessions, because there’s both a physical and mental balance to all of them.
But, yes, as Coen said, so far, so good on Hunter.
I’ll be at three sets of joint practices this week—and I’d encourage you to go, too. I haven’t been to any yet, because, if you want inside journalism reasons, they can be a little difficult as far as getting what I’d want to get out of them. But thanks to some of the teams involved, I’m going this week, which I’m excited about, because the on-field stuff is great.
This, by the way, is where most of the NFL is going.
Want to know why it’s increasingly less likely that you’ll see your favorite players play in a preseason game? The coaches can get controlled, targeted work done, and generate all of the situations and scenarios they need to see in a joint practice while getting their teams ready to go. For you, the fan, that means getting to see guys compete against each other in an environment that’s completely different from what you’re used to. From the one-on-one’s to the 11-on-11s, and even the fights (yes, they are entertaining), it’s an awesome take.
It’s also one trend that the league, for one reason or another, hasn’t really tried to monetize. I don’t know why, either, because it seems to me like you could create a jamboree type of feel around these things in a way that’d be impossible with a preseason game.
Now, it’s a lot harder to turn it into a cash cow than with a preseason game (did I just answer my own question?), where owners can just force season ticket holders to buy out most of the stadium, and sell $15 Bud Lights until they’re blue in the face, or until the majority of the fans hit the exits, which happens by halftime.
Anyway, there’s definitely something there and, from a football standpoint, that something is only going to become more pronounced. As the league’s adjusted to the 17-game format, coaches have become even more cognizant of players only having so many bullets left in the gun (see: Stafford, Matthew), and joint practices give them a way to get guys meaningful work in an environment in which they’re less likely to get hurt.
It stands to reason that when the NFL goes to 18 games, there’ll be more of that, not less, and preseason will only get worse.
So the smart thing, to me, would be to lean into what the football people want to do anyway.
Even if the league doesn’t, you, the fans, should.
Shedeur Sanders looked pretty good Friday night in Carolina. I think it’s a good example of a guy who won’t shrink under the lights, or pressure, of playing in the NFL. It makes sense, too, in that the Browns rookie has had a pretty prominent family legacy to measure up to since he first started playing the sport, and had a lot on him to turn around programs at Jackson State and Colorado over the past four years.
It’s an important box to check, too. That it’s showing that he’s the kind of quarterback who can look better in game conditions than he does in practice (Jimmy Garoppolo was this way as a young player) should only give the Browns coaches more motivation to give him some opportunity to play with the starters.
So what’s next? It’s showing that he can day in and day out run the operation in a way that’ll allow the first-team players to get good work in while they’re preparing for their season. It’s an often-overlooked piece of a quarterback getting a chance when he’s young, with each one of those reps in practice a piece of capital from a pool of limited resources, given all the rules about how much players can practice in 2025.
For now, I feel pretty confident that one of the veterans, probably Joe Flacco, will start in Week 1. But what this does, I think, is create a better chance that the Browns would want to get a look at him later in the year, if the season doesn’t go the way they want it to.
We’re in full swing now. So here are your mid-August quick-hitters …
• Shout out to Cam Little. I don’t care that it’s a preseason game. Seventy yards is 70 yards.
• That kickoff return from TreVeyon Henderson looked, in the open field, reminiscent of his iconic screen-pass touchdown at the end of the first half of Ohio State’s CFP semifinal win over Texas. The Patriots look like they got a good one, and because of more than just that return. It’ll be interesting to see how Josh McDaniels—who coached Kevin Faulk, Danny Woodhead, Shane Vereen and James White—will use Henderson in the passing game.
• Again, I wouldn’t be worried about Stafford in any other way than the normal “It’s not good for a 37-year-old player to have a back issue” kind of way. The Rams wanted to get him to 100% before really pushing him. This is about December and January more than it was about August. The team’s depth at quarterback is helping them now, too, in that the starters can get quality work in with Garoppolo in there (Stetson Bennett’s made a big jump, too).
• One thing I liked about Jaxson Dart on Saturday: How he hung in the pocket, took hits, and got the ball out. He moved around nicely, and I think the kid has a chance. Of course, if things go to plan, with Russell Wilson playing well and the Giants contending, we won’t see Dart in meaningful action until next year.
• Jalen Milroe, for what it’s worth, was impressive, too. And after seeing him in person—he’s even bigger than he looked to me on TV last year—you can see why the Seahawks took a third-round flier on him. By all accounts, he’s a great kid, too.
• Conversely, I wouldn’t take the cheese on Joe Milton. But he’s definitely fun to watch.
• Good to see J.J. McCarthy back out there. The Vikings quarterback went through a lot over the past year, so getting to see him between the lines again and in his element was cool. I’d be surprised if he didn’t play well in the fall.
• I’d confirm Mike Silver’s report that the Browns got trade offers for Dillon Gabriel on the Saturday morning of draft weekend, which essentially confirms the interested teams were prepared to take him in the fourth round (despite perception that he was overdrafted in the third round). How did the idea that he could go that high fly under the radar? I’ve heard Gabriel crushed his meetings with teams, and many saw his floor, as a result, as a long-term backup.
• To some degree the way the injury to Anthony Richardson happened explained where he is as a player. That he didn’t recognize, or see, what was coming on the play isn’t a great sign for where he is developmentally.
• Prayers to Morice Norris and his family, and a huge hat-tip to Falcons coach Raheem Morris and Lions coach Dan Campbell for stepping in to stop the game the other night after an ambulance had taken Norris off the field.
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