SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Trey Lance picked up a football, tossed it across the room at Levi’s Stadium, and worked a catch on it to try to relive the way he held it just over a year ago only to have a prayer of throwing it. His index finger was almost to the nose of the ball, his middle finger off the laces and his ring finger sitting on and between the first and second cross -laces.
Not how anyone tells a quarterback to do it. But Lance had no choice.
Even more remarkable? He didn’t even have anything to say about it then—really to anyone. So as his rookie year went up and down, as it looked like his cannon right arm might be throwing, how it might have looked to some that he was throwing the ball in -games, Lance knew what was wrong. He had a broken finger, with damaged ligaments, and even if the excuses would save him some criticism and grief, he wasn’t going to make any.
“I broke the bone in his pointer finger, so I had to wait on it. It was super swollen, he couldn’t really bend it or straighten it,” he said, pressing it onto the ball. “It [happened] in the Raiders [preseason] game. We had a bye week after the Raiders game, I had a splint on just to try and get it back straight. So it cut, it still stayed bent like this and we just had to keep working. I wore such a small strap… pushed down on my ankle and up on both sides of my fingers. I kept wearing it and stretching as much as I could, scratching it and trying to get all the scar tissue out of there.”
As Lance was explaining it, he twisted his index finger and held it in place, showing how hard it was to summon any strength in it and showing how, at the time, he was really trying to throw with four fingers. Add that to the learning curve he faced coming from North Dakota State, with only 17 college starts on his resume, and then how did he hope the finger would straighten out in the season evaporated, and your perception of Lance may change.
No, Lance’s rookie year did not go as planned. And sure, there were moments of doubt in some corners of San Francisco. But the full picture wasn’t out there for public consumption, either – which was by the quarterback’s own choice – or even for almost any of the people he was working with on a day-to-day basis.
“I was blown away by the way he ran this, I found a way to go out there and get better every day,” 49ers GM John Lynch said. “And it was difficult because of that finger, and it wasn’t always pretty. That’s the finger you throw a football with, and he didn’t have that. It was a compromise. It led to some bad habits. But he still found a way to improve, to support Jimmy [Garoppolo], to be a great partner and earn the respect of our kids.”
Six months later, on a Saturday in August, Lance is the one taking first team reps, with Garoppolo on the sideline throwing and waiting for the Niners to find him a new home. That, of course, was expected, from the moment the team took Lance No. 3 in the draft 16 months ago.
But his way here? It had a lot more twists and turns, and potholes, than most people know.
Snead: Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports; Lance: Stan Szeto/USA TODAY Sports; Parsons: Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports
I’ve had a week off the road, and I’ll be back on it this week. In the middle, we are getting a loaded MMQB column. Inside this week’s column, you will find…
• Some final thoughts on the Deshaun Watson decision.
• A Cowboy without comparison.
• Why and how the Rams actually value their pick.
But we’re starting with one of the NFL’s most intriguing story lines—a team that was minutes away from making the Super Bowl now makes a quarterback change months later, and takes on everything that comes along with that.
There is pent-up enthusiasm over what the Niners are seeing from Lance this summer and, mostly, that’s because he still has a lot to learn.
The injury early in his de facto redshirt season created a fairly significant bump in the process the Niners would go through to evaluate his readiness to be their starter—as the entire plan prescribed—in 2022. And this was after there was, certainly, a leap of faith for Lance to take third in first place.
Again, he only had 17 college starts. He averaged fewer than 19 pass attempts, and nearly 11 carries, in those games. Most of them were blowouts on North Dakota State’s road to an FBS national championship in 2019, so NFL teams didn’t really get to see him on third-and-long or play from behind. Then, of course, his ’20 season was canceled due to COVID-19, with NDSU playing just one exhibition, in which the quarterback was a bit scattered.
“That’s why the evaluation was so difficult,” explained 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, leaning back in his office chair. “I mean, it’s because of all the situations you just said, and also there was only one year of it, because they ended up being canceled with COVID the next year. So I saw things in the games. I just didn’t see him more and more, because he didn’t have his reps. That’s what was so easy to see with Mac [Jones]. Just the system they played in with Sark [then Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian], the type of games they were in, you can see it a ton.
“Trey, you can make a tape and it’s all there, but there’s not a ton of it. … You go through it all, which is not enough. It’s enough to move you, but still a risk. Then you learn the person, you get to know more about them, and you believe in this. You don’t have to totally watch it. You’ll believe what you’re going to see.”
And for a while, last summer, the Niners were seeing exactly what they hoped for. After OTAs that spring, San Francisco’s quarterback situation seemed clear—Garoppolo was the starter for a Super Bowl-caliber roster, and Lance had a long way to go. Then, through the 40-day break between minicamp and training camp, the rookie worked on his footwork in Atlanta, with fellow former NDSU quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Easton Stick in Fargo, and on his throwing efficiency in Orange County, and he returned for a summer to a closed gap.
“The first two weeks of training camp, we were looking at it as a real good competition, the way it turned out,” Shanahan continued. “And then the more things came in, Jimmy is so used to him and Jimmy plays at a high level, Jimmy and him, there was a separation between the two. There were some rookie things he used to do. He just needed more time, and I was pumped that Jimmy gave him that time.”
Which is where the next tie in the plan came—during the 49ers’ preseason finale against the Raiders at home.
With 16 seconds left in the half, Lance scooped up a ball in wide open space on the right sideline as Las Vegas linebacker Max Richardson flew over him. It looked like a bad throwaway, because the receiver ran the wrong route, but the more significant action occurred on the follow-up by Lance, who landed right on the crown of Richardson’s helmet, breaking his finger and stretches his ligaments.
As a rookie looking to keep his spot on the depth chart, and continue to get the practice reps he needed, Lance saw the injury as something he could grit his teeth and work through. So he had to share it and, really, he never brought it back to the team.
“I didn’t really know how much it was affecting me until we got into the season,” he said. “Every week it became more difficult. And I was working on it, I knew of course that it was broken. He didn’t feel well. But I wanted to play. I wanted to at least have the opportunity to be ready and be both, whatever my role [will be] that year. So yes, I took care of it as best I could. But there’s only so much you can do.”
And there it was, the same, only Lance could do when he managed to get shots to play in place of the undefeated Garoppolo last year.
The first came against Arizona, and his tape wasn’t great—he went 15-of-29 for 192 yards and a pick in a 17–10 loss. The second was Jan. 2 against the Texans, and the toe issue was only compounded by the fact that he was a little under the weather for that as well (his numbers, 16-of-23 for 249 yards, 2 TDs and a pick , were better). But by then, Shanahan had the context that almost everyone else was missing, and that context, added to the performance, only increased his belief in the Lance that he would see, with a little more time.
Against Arizona, it was his toughness. Against Houston, it was more than that.
“The pressure was on, because if we lost that game, we were out of the playoffs, and everybody knew it,” Shanahan said. “He started slow, and he came back and finished in that second half, caught fire, threw a [45-yard] touchdown to Deebo [Samuel]. We ended up easily winning the game, and this was kind of when, Well, this guy can overcome adversity. We know he has the ability. It’s a matter of time for this guy.
“And then just after him in the offseason, the way he came back prepared, the way he went in OTAs—the difference between OTA 1 and OTA 7, and the difference between OTA 7 and right now. The man only gets better when he’s thrown out there.”
Of course, a lot had to happen between the end of the season and OTAs for Lance to get there.
Lance reworked his mechanics to fix some changes he had made to compensate for an injury as a rookie.
To be clear, Lance’s mechanics coach, Adam Dedeaux, loves everything about Lance as a person, and the toughness he has shown in fighting through injury. But he never wants the quarterback to be so quiet about something like that ever again.
“Yes, he didn’t want to talk about the finger,” says Dedeaux, “because maybe he wasn’t thinking, This is the problem. But his arm took a beating.”
As Lynch said, the adjustments Lance made to fight through the finger injury did lead to bad habits. And this led to his arm being worn, another thing he kept to himself on an old premise in favor of the football player: Everyone is dealing with something.
After the Niners’ season ended in the NFC championship game, Lance went to work with Dedeaux. As the two dove into the tape and continued to talk, Lance told Dedeaux how he had adjusted his grip to compensate for the weakness in his index finger, his index finger which, in that point, he didn’t have a full finger span yet. motion. This allowed Dedeaux to dive deeper into how Lance was playing a sort of survival game with the ball.
“If, suddenly, there are some inexplicable changes in the flight of the ball and the accuracy and things like that, Well, then let’s see what the main difference is,” said Dedeaux. “And so it was like, O.K., why did you feel like you had to make changes? And it was like, Well, honestly, when I hurt my finger that made me feel like I needed to change to get a little more under the ball, so I felt like I had a little more control over it.”
So if it looked like, at points last year, Lance was pushing the ball away from his body, that’s probably why. How did it happen? The tape showed that to manipulate the situation, Lance was not only catching but perhaps over-catching the ball (which can cause pain), and was also dropping his arm slot to try to get under it and control it better.
The reality was that it wasn’t even a conscious thing as much as Lance doing what he had to do to get his themes to go where he wanted them. But it was something that would need correction, and in more ways than one.
The goal was to get Lance not to some sort of classic throwing motion, but simply back to where he felt most natural to throw—”call it a half-three-quarters arm slot,” Dedeaux said. This will only happen if they can get his finger and arm back to full health.
Specialists helped Lance get his fingers where he needed them, and he and Dedeaux worked on a strict pitch count in the weeks leading up to the Niners’ offseason program. Dedeaux also used the example of Matt Ryan, another of his clients, to illustrate how in Shanahan’s offense, it was more important to throw with anticipation than at a fixed velocity, which would help Lance take something away from some balls and saves health.
And when Lance wasn’t throwing, there was still a lot to learn from his rookie year, by his own admission. He’s worked on his entire film since 2021, sometimes with teammates like Brandon Aiyuk, who has bonded with his quarterback over the past few months.
As the off-season began, Lance’s finger straightened, his mechanics corrected and his workload increased. So by the time OTAs rolled around, he was ready to make the day-to-day progress Shanahan mentioned, which then transitioned from spring to summer.
“I’m going to be a lot better than I was last year,” he says. “Everything is slow. Some of [the tape] is hard to watch because you see some of the dumb mistakes. But that’s part of it. That’s part of playing the position, that’s part of being in my first year. This year there will be mistakes again, and for me it’s about how I respond. It will be easy to turn the page. And for the frustrating moments? I had them today, I have them every day.
“But I think how we respond, how I personally respond is the most important.”
The Saturday I was there, early in the day in his press conference, Shanahan looked at a reporter like he had three heads after the reporter prefaced a question by saying his offense had the best practice the day before. earlier.
It wasn’t the reporter’s fault, of course. It’s just that Shanahan didn’t see it that way, as he explained a few minutes later from his office.
“I have opinions about whether guys have good days or bad days, and then I have to go to a press conference and I’m asked about things and sometimes it’s the exact opposite of what I feel,” he said. “And you’re like, Man, why do they think that? … Oh, there were three picks there today. They wrote this. Well, those three picks could be anyone’s fault, and sometimes those three picks I was pumped about, because I finally let it go and saw it right. And what happened? There was a tip or something, but it’s a good learning experience.
“I mean today I went in there for the press conference and they asked me how pumped I was about yesterday’s crime. I had no idea what they were talking about. I was frustrated [with the offense]. So I feel for the players, because they read those things or their wives call them or their friends. They’re like, Man, I hear you suck today. And they start to believe, and then I have to go and tell them, Man, don’t suck. You actually had a good day.”
A minute earlier, I brought up how the panic button was being worn three years earlier when Garoppolo, coming back from a torn ACL, threw five picks in practice. Shanahan smiled and corrected me. In fact, he said, they were five picks “in a row.”
The Niners were in the Super Bowl six months after that practice.
And the hope is that it is where a new batch of reports of the ups and downs that Lance went through will get San Francisco, with its loaded roster and the 22-year-old quarterback, this time as well. Yes, Shanahan, very intentionally, is throwing the kitchen sink at his young QB with an edgy, speedy, veteran defense.
“He’s going against a really good defense, so it’s going to be tough early on,” All-Star edge rusher Nick Bosa said. “But he already looks better throwing the ball this year. Last year, he had the finger issue that kinda messed with his throwing motion, and when you’re a backup in the NFL, you don’t get a lot of reps. So this month is super important for him, and I’ve already seen some impressive plays.”
“They bring it every day,” added Lance, of the defense. “We know they will do it. I know if I’m not on it or we’re not on it, they’re going to make us look really, really bad. So I just know I need to be prepared to go every day. They don’t take any day off, and you can see the intensity, you can feel it every day. There’s nothing more I can ask for, in that sense, to go against the best defense in the league every day.”
Ideally, Shanahan says, the offense and defense would hit “.500 every day” against each other. And so the breadth of training camp was never going to be about building Lance to think he could snap his fingers and be Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes. More than that, it was about having an inexperienced quarterback.
Along these lines, Dedeaux mentioned how Ryan’s first year playing with Shanahan, 2015, was an excuse—and also the precursor to his MVP year in ’16. The point is, there will be a learning curve along the way, and the more Shanahan and defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans can create for Lance now, the better equipped he’ll be to handle it when it comes to game action.
The good news is, after last year, they already know that Lance can handle the turmoil. And Lance knows it too.
“Absolutely,” he said. “And I know, I’ve said it before, the guys in the locker room have confidence in me, and I know they’ve got my back, that’s all I need at the end of the day. I feel really good about this, about these guys. They know I’ve got their back. But yes, I’m turning the page. The pick he threw today, same thing, turn the page, come back, do a good two-minute drill and then we’ll finish it the best way.”
That two-minute drill concluded with the kind of play that made Lance such a coveted prospect in the first place. Deep in the red zone, he took a shotgun snap, and as the Niners’ defensive ends ran around his tackles, he stepped into the pocket and was chased left, saw, by the corner of ‘ his eyes, Ray-Ray McCloud found a dead spot in coverage to his right.
On a dime, he twisted his torso and launched a strike across his body that tattooed McCloud right on his No. 3 jersey for a touchdown. Shanahan blew the whistle to end practice and, indeed, there were no gasps from the sidelines.
Everyone here knows what Lance is capable of.
What Shanahan and Lynch saw when Lance, the person, convinced them what Lance, the player, could turn all the raw skill, is slowly coming to life, sure.
“To win in this league, you have to make plays in the pocket, you have to be a drop-back passer, do all those things, and I see him having the ability to do all that, which excited me,” Shanahan said. “You want that with every single quarterback you go for, but very rarely do I feel that way about a guy who I think is also a threat to run. And you look at our division, you look at some of the guys that we go against and how we can get advantages on people, and so many people in the league are running similar things to us now.
“Now defenses see it more. … When they’re practicing against their own offense during the offseason, they’re just a little more used to it. And I like the idea of being able to add another element that maybe some other people can’t. You can do the same stuff, but if they play this way, we have another option. Our man can run.”
“We really believe in that limit,” added Lynch, “that it can become a reality. I also think it’s comforting to know you don’t have to put everything on him.”
Indeed, as Lance is being weaned into the system and working to develop into a complete quarterback, a big key for Shanahan and Lynch is that given the state of the roster, the Niners don’t need him to be a superman.
In illustrating his vision for this, Shanahan cited the 28–3 lead he, Ryan and Atlanta let slip in Super Bowl LI at the hands of Tom Brady.
“There’s no defense for the perfect throw and he was tearing us up,” Shanahan said. “And how do you stop like that? You don’t go and get someone to cherish. You get a pass rush.”
Conversely, he then brought up the Niners’ Super Bowl LIV loss to the Chiefs, and how Mahomes made plays that made a difference, just as Lance hopes he can.
“You can win with a run game and with a quarterback who can make some plays, whether he’s throwing it or running it, as long as you have a great defense,” he said. “And that’s how we tried to build it here to catch some of those teams until you have someone like that. And I think we have a chance to have a player grow into someone like that.”
Maybe Lance, one day, will get there.
For now, however, they are not asking for it. They love talent. They love the person. They also know a lot more about him than they did a year before, after seeing how he handled the injury and his wait to start work. And Lance, for his part, is well aware of what he has around him as well, and the opportunity that awaits.
“I’m super blessed to be here,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting to be drafted as much as I was drafted to a team like this, a Super Bowl contending team. So I’m grateful to be here. The guys, like I said, in this locker room, the offense, the defense and the special teams are different, and they separate themselves in a lot of different ways. This year I’m bringing Deebo back…
Lance then smiled and said, “Ah man, it’s super exciting.”
It’s for everyone involved with the 49ers. And especially after everything they’ve already been through together.
Watson will be suspended for 11 games, and his case will have a long-term impact on the league.
WATSON SETTLEMENT FALLOUT, ON AND OFF THE FIELD
First I’ll repeat what I wrote Thursday after the NFL, NFLPA and Deshaun Watson reached an agreement on sanctions for Watson—the quarterback got an 11-game suspension and a $5 million fine, and before with evaluation and consultancy. This after solving 23 out of 24 lawsuits against him that describe sexual harassment and assault. See the article : 10 Video Games To Play If You Like Batman: The Animated Series. and they say the NFL probably got what it was looking for in the negotiations.
One, the league wanted to come down hard on Watson by adding five games and $5 million to the penalty recommended by Sue L. Robinson, who presided over the first phase of the process. And whether you think he did or not, it seemed relatively clear to me that the public’s attention in recent days has been on how the Browns and Watson handled the aftermath, not on what they did to the league.
Two, the NFL wanted to avoid going to court, and the settlement effectively achieves that. The league wanted no part of this to turn into a supersized version of 2015, when the Tom Brady case dragged on for an entire season (obviously I’m not comparing the substance of the two cases here, by the way ), and it gives the NFL some closure that way.
But what will it mean for the NFL, the Browns and Watson in the long run? Here are a few things I have considered on that subject since the decision was made.
1. Unless there is a renegotiation of the personal conduct policy for cases like this, a precedent has been set with the hefty fine and 11 game suspension. Remember, Robinson’s decision was not based on whether Watson was liable in the four cases the NFL filed (it found him liable); it was based on precedent. In order to have a new one is important.
2. Along these lines, I wonder if the NFL will try to work with the union to rework that part of the personal conduct policy, to address more specifically sexual violence and transgressions another against women. The league has clearly had its problems managing those. And I imagine the NFLPA would at least consider working with the league on this, based on how the union has worked with the league on these things in the past (the DUI policy is one where both sides , years ago, they agreed to harsh penalties). must be in place).
3. I will be interested to see if, when the 24th (and presumably the last) case is adjudicated, we will have a Watson who is more willing to explain himself and be more specific with his apologies.
4. Jimmy Haslam was being a little disingenuous talking about taking risks during a press conference that didn’t go well for the Browns owner. He mentioned Kareem Hunt as a risk that worked on the field. Fair enough. But under his leadership, there were quite a few (Antonio Callaway, Josh Gordon, Johnny Manziel, Justin Gilbert, etc., etc.) that exploded in the face of the team.
5. As for Cleveland GM Andrew Berry, I say this: There really isn’t much he can say about the 24 lawsuits or the four cases presented to the league. If he says he believes Watson, then he is essentially saying the women involved are lying. And if he says he doesn’t, well, then why trade for him? That’s why I saw him, I think, trying to say at least Thursday.
6. At the end of the league, I think the way this was handled follows what at least a few owners wanted a few years ago and agreed to in the CBA. And this is for the NFL to start outsourcing these cases and distance Goodell from being judge, jury and executioner. I think that’s why I saw Goodell hand down a decision on the appeal. And the effect of that? As I said before, not as many people were pointing the finger at the league as they did in previous cases.
7. I can actually understand the league wanting to outsource these as well. No matter how many people you employ, it is not law enforcement. It has no subpoena power. It is a sports league, and as has been found over the years there is very little head to carry the hammer in every arena.
8. There’s no way to turn the page to football here without it looking like a hard left turn, but I’ll try. Of course, the Browns now have certainty about the suspension, so I think they will at least kick the tires on Jimmy Garoppolo and other veteran options available (as long as Garoppolo works with them on his part of the money, and I think it would). With decent quarterback play (and I think Jacoby Brissett can give them that too), the roster is good enough to get six or seven wins through 11 games.
9. I feel confident in saying that the Browns know what they will face on the road this year, and they were aware that it was part of the deal when they made the trade back in March. Regardless of whether Watson is guilty, it’s obviously understandable why people would be upset with the team.
10. That said, this was never a move just for 2022. It was a move the Browns believed was a rare opportunity to land a top-five player at the most important position in the sport in his mid-20s. The idea was to put them in a position to compete with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson in the AFC over the next decade or so. For the Browns to pull this off is both a sign of how vital it is to have a great quarterback in this era and what kind of player Watson is.
While the disciplinary process now has closure, of course the conversation is not over, nor should it be, regardless of where you stand on the case.
It’s hard to find the right comparison for Parsons, who burst onto the scene as a rookie.
MICAH PARSONS: THE DEFENSIVE GRONK?
OXNARD, Calif. — My conversation with Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn began by trying to get a historical comparison for Micah Parsons out of him. This may interest you : Electronic Arts’ revenue forecast doesn’t match the decline in gaming. He didn’t have one, and eventually we meandered right back there, after it struck me as he was describing it.
That sounds like the inverse of Rob Gronkowski, I said, as he described Parsons’ uniqueness.
Quinn smiled and said she liked that. My logic was simple. Gronkowski was a nightmare for defenses from the minute he broke the huddle because that was when they had to figure out what to do with him. Put a defensive back on him, his team checks for a run, and that corner or safety gets blocked in the third row. Put a linebacker on him, Gronk’s waltzing down the seam for a big gain. There was literally no right answer.
Ditto with Parsons. When the crime breaks the inside, an account of the 23-year-old should be given. If he’s out of line, you can’t assign a back to handle him, he’s ready to blitz and that back is responsible for slowing him down. If he’s on the line, you have to treat him like he’s DeMarcus Lawrence coming off the edge, because he almost is. And if he drops into coverage or plays the run, you’ll likely have to waste a resource representing him as a rusher.
“Yes, it is the reservation of that match: Like, how are we going to look after this guy?” said Quinn of the Gronk comp. “With him, it’s like, whenever you have to double a really good receiver, it’s hard when he has to move to different spots. Not that they are always doubling him, but he, O.K., he is here, he is this; he’s over there, he’s that.”
That’s why when I went to Cowboys camp, I felt like it was one of the few where the quarterback really isn’t the most interesting player—and that’s no shot at Dak Prescott.
Parsons’ singular talent, along with his drive, added up to a rookie season for the books. He had a streak of six consecutive games with a sack. His 12 sacks in his first 13 games as a pro were the most of any player in 20 years, and that happened despite only being a part-time edge player. He finished with 13 sacks, three passes defensed, three forced fumbles, and was a game-changer in every way a defensive player can be, earning first-team All-Pro honors and finishing second in -Defensive Player of the Year voting, ahead of Aaron. Donald.
But the numbers barely cover what a different guy this really is, a kind of Swiss Army knife that is built for the 21st century game much like Gronkowski was uniquely, where the position designation next to his name seems more of a suggestion . That’s why even he couldn’t come up with a comp for his skill set, when I asked.
“No,” Parsons said smiling. “That’s why it’s hard for me to see other guys, all the guys that I see, no matter how good they are or their style of play, I don’t think there’s anybody in the league that’s like me.”
And Quinn admits now that it actually made it something of a challenge to assess him coming out of Penn State, especially after he opted out of the 2020 pandemic season to prepare for the following April’s draft. Of course, he and the Cowboys knew how special Parsons was in terms of athleticism. He ran a 4.36 at his Pro Day at 6’3″ and 246 pounds, and Dallas scouts saw, in part because of Parsons’ wrestling background, a rare ability to combine speed, power and leverage, along with an innate feel for how to use all that reactively.
What was difficult to project was just how that would add up in the pros. He was an edge rusher in high school (and was recruited as one by many schools) and an off-ball ‘backer in college, and the NFL has been littered over the years with great athletes who could never find a niche. theirs. . Therefore it was important that whoever drafted it had a plan. That’s why when I asked Quinn if it was difficult to grade, there was no hesitation.
“Yeah, and he really only played one year [at Penn State],” Quinn said. “He blitzed a lot, I saw his speed, so he was O.K., I can see how we present him; he could just go out and play. He’s really fast, so he can blitz, he can stand, he’s tough. But the end line pass rush, I didn’t see a lot of it at Penn State, so when we started doing it, it was like…”
And Quinn smiled broadly. Last year in camp, the revelation happened when you see Parsons going toe to toe with guys like Tyron Smith and Zack Martin, who legitimately could become Hall of Famers one day. Parsons, of course, didn’t take over when he lined up against those guys. But he kept his, and that was enough to make the coaches think. Then, in Week 2, Lawrence was injured, the governor was off and Quinn punched the gas. Parsons was moonlighting at the end.
By then, Quinn had little doubt it would work, and not just because he had enough good tape from pass-rush drills in camp to put together a Sizzle Parsons reel. It was also why the more he did the more he did.
“I’m not saying he was beating Zack the whole time, don’t get me wrong,” Quinn said. “But they were good at going against how someone says, O.K., that worked, that didn’t work. And O.K., this is how the best in the league play, how can I win? And he has just started to adapt.”
We have already detailed what happened next. Along the way, though, the Cowboys found out more and more about the kid—who faced some maturity questions through the pre-draft process—who was growing up so fast.
The first thing was how driven he was. The second was how intelligent the football was, able to switch from one position to another smoothly. And when you put those two things together, Quinn said, you had a then-22-year-old who rarely made two mistakes and was a relentless self-critic, a quality that came out when I asked him about his rookie tape.
“Aw man, I see so many mistakes I made, wrong steps, wrong timing,” he said. “It’s just a little funny. You see that old tape and my tape now, it has improved a lot. I’m super excited to get out there this year. … It’s mental, where you put your eyes, what am I warned about? What am I waiting for? I’m trying to take the extra steps in the game.”
Physically, this season, he did so by working out at the MMA and boxing gyms in Dallas. He went back to his roots and did wrestling workouts to drill his hand and footwork and work on leverage and takedowns. He did boxing work to improve his reaction time, his ability to dive and move and his ability to strike. And he swears by it, because he’s already seeing the results—”I’m doing all these sports because they correlate with football.”
And as for the mental side of the game, matter of factly, he told me he watched tape of Shaquille Leonard (“He’s the best linebacker in the game. I love him, I love his style of play. I love everything. about him; he’s ferocious,”) to improve his off-the-ball game, and Von Miller (“Von’s my guy, just because is sets the standard for speed rushers,”) to pick up stuff as an edgerusher.
Along these lines, Quinn has become more methodical about how he’s breaking up Parsons’ time between linebacker and defensive line meetings.
“We put a lot on him, but he really rose to the challenge,” Quinn said. “So this year, I have him actually where he is, O.K., you’re at linebacker for this part of the meeting, you’re in D-line this part, you’re here for this part. So we did it on purpose. … Two days ago, it was all linebacker, all day. Three or four days ago, it was three-quarters D-line. And in those specific examples, it’s usually, This is how we’re going to see you today .”
As scary as it sounds, Quinn says there’s plenty of room to grow. Quinn coached Bobby Wagner in Seattle, so he sets a high bar for Parsons when he’s playing off the line. Up front, there’s actually a lot more Dallas can do with him—and in an effort to make that happen, the coaches worked with him during the offseason to make him part of more defensive line plays (stunts, twists, etc.) to generate better matchups and get it to the quarterback.
Even better, Parsons ate all of this stuff.
“I remember talking to him early on like, Hey man, I’m going to coach you hard, and we’re going to ask you to do some things that a lot of people don’t do,” Quinn said. “He goes, You tell me what you want to see from me. So when I say we’re going to try to do some things that not many people have done, that’s what we did.”
And there is more of what comes now, which brings to life how this type of positionless player also seems so unlimited at this early stage in his career.
And Parsons, for his part, knows it too. That’s why his goals have no limits, either.
“To be one of the greatest,” he said, now smiling broadly. “That’s what I want to be. I started in Ohio; I want to finish in Ohio.”
That first mention of Ohio, by the way, is for his first game as a pro, which was last summer’s Hall of Fame Game in Canton. The second Ohio reference, as you might have guessed, is to the same place.
Snead made headlines for his T-shirt, but not everyone quite gets the picture.
Trevor Ruszkowski/USA TODAY Sports
DON’T MISUNDERSTAND THE RAMS
IRVINE, Calif. – The T-shirt really wasn’t Les Snead’s idea. He got an order of them from a family friend as a stocking stuffer for Christmas last year. The Rams GM was then encouraged to wear it. He continued to reply, I would never wear this. See the article : Detroit Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship ADD deadline to Open Call for artist to paint Farwell Rec Center Mural. Then, someone said, You win the Super Bowl, you have to wear it. Begrudgingly, he agreed. And when that happened, neither his wife, Kara, nor his children would let him out.
“It was more for others than me,” he said laughing.
So that’s the story of how the Eff-Them-Picks meme became a shirt, and how that shirt came to be worn in the Rams’ Super Bowl parade. And even now, Snead is a little sheepish about it.
Maybe that’s because, well, he doesn’t believe—or that it represents his team’s strategy.
As such, as you could have guessed, on the sun-drenched day that Snead and I caught on the UC-Irvine fields of the Rams about an hour after another practice supercharged Sean McVay, Snead was not wearing a shirt. It hasn’t been put out since the parade, and the Rams can laugh about it now. Know that they are laughing at it, and not at his idea, because it has become such a bad name for how their roster has been built in the last six years.
“To sum it up, with our previous picks, is, Is there a less traditional way to use them?” Snead explained. “You are not devaluing them. We’re not just giving them to our division rivals, like, Hey f— these picks, here you go, take them. Is, Can we use them differently to help us get an advantage? Now, the crux of this is that if you’re going to bring in players in their prime and you’re going to have to pay them, along with some of your other pillars, we’re going to really have to rely on players who are on their rookie contracts to we will be Their Robins to our Batmen.
“And that’s the inverse of [the meme].”
If you think Snead is pushing back on a popular narrative, you’re wrong.
During the six drafts that Snead and McVay oversaw, the Rams made 53 picks, tied for sixth most in the league during that span (2017–22). The team carried 33 homegrown players on its 53-man roster in last year’s NFC title game, tied with the Niners for the most among the conference’s four finalists. Thirteen of the team’s 22 projected starters are Rams picks, with Aaron Donald the only first-rounder in the group, and that doesn’t count three others (Troy Hill, Justin Hollins, Coleman Shelton) who are either too homegrown, too.
Nine of the 13 mentioned above are still on rookie contracts, which, like Snead said, is a big key to all of this. Some guys have grown into megastars and are paid as such (Donald, Cooper Kupp). Others got manageable second deals (Rob Havenstein, Brian Allen, Joe Noteboom, Tyler Higbee). And the third category here is also important, one that includes players like John Johnson III and Cory Littleton. Letting those guys go allowed the Rams to keep their war chest loaded with capital, as they brought back a series of compensatory picks.
“We tried to utilize the comp formula. We tried to trade back, to pick up as much as possible in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh [rounds],” Snead said. “Now, we’re in -32nd place in the first round, but we are the first five in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.”
So what is actually innovative and different about this?
The notion that first-round picks, and especially back-end first-round picks, are fundamentally different from other picks is fading—and it’s a lesson Snead really learned for the first time as a top lieutenant by Thomas Dimitroff in Atlanta in 2011. Going into the draft that spring. , the Falcons had made the playoffs three straight years, and had a young star quarterback in Matt Ryan with a growing core around him.
“Julio [Jones]’s concept, which is where this should all start, is to be aware of what window you’re in,” Snead said. “At that time, Matt Ryan had shown that he could win, take you to the playoffs. It’s like, O.K., now you’re in this window, we can be good, we can sustain, let’s go for it. At least you had this success, it’s not like you’ve never been to the playoffs and you’re doing something drastic to see if you can get in.
“It was, how can we get an edge and be even better in that tight window with eight to 12 teams left?”
That discussion led the Falcons, whose slotted pick was 27th that year, to really examine the value of such a low first rounder. Their determination? Maybe everyone was doing it all wrong. And finally, they ended up dealing that first rounder (Jimmy Smith), along with 59 (Greg Little) and 124 (Owen Marecic) in 2011, and 22 (Brandon Weeden) and 118 (Jarius Wright) ’12 for Jones.
The Falcons made two NFC title games and a Super Bowl during Jones’ first six years, Ryan won an MVP, and Jones made seven Pro Bowls as a Falcon.
That, of course, was a less traditional way to use high picks, and Snead carried its lesson over to the Rams. So after McVay arrived, that meant taking a swing at Sammy Watkins or Marcus Peters, knowing the Rams could get a comp pick back if those types of moves didn’t work out. Then came the 2018 Brandin Cooks trade, which was the first regime for a veteran involving a first rounder, and it really opened up the conversation.
The Rams looked at what the Patriots did with the Cooks pick in 2018. Georgia lineman Isaiah Wynn became. Then, they saw what became of their first rounder, the 31st pick, the next year, which they had used in a trade down—the Falcons used it to take Washington tackle Kaleb McGary. So their slots, in consecutive years, became solid, if unspectacular offensive linemen, none of whom ended up being long-term left tackles.
“You say, We’ll be cutting two starting offensive linemen for Jalen Ramsey?” Snead continued. “And then you say, You know what? It’s a little easier to find a starting OL than those types of corners. So you’re always trying to use a little bit of the abstract.”
Using that abstract led to the Ramsey midseason trade in 2019 and, then, about 15 months later, the Matthew Stafford blockbuster—two deals worth the Rams four picks in the first round and a bunch of money in monster extensions. But they worked because they were for really elite players who were worth everything, which was proven in February.
Now, perhaps the biggest key, Snead says, is getting the coaching staff involved in the later rounds—both to be clear about what kind of players they need and then to be able to develop guys who, of course , they may not bring the whole. an athletic package that a first-round pick would make. And therein lies another thing that Snead took from Dimitroff in building his draft board—not just to rank players, but to address needs, and to build and fill a functioning 53-man roster (which is a principle of Dimitroff’s roots in the New England system) .
But not being focused on, say, an option in the 20s helps there too.
“You can spend a lot of time trying to figure out who you’re going to draft at 22,” Snead said. “But when you don’t have that, you can really get together with your coaching staff and your scouting staff and say, Let’s see how we’re going to do our best to find good players for the Rams instead of spending all that. time trying to find this first rounder. This allows us plenty of time to do that.”
All you have to do is look at the Rams’ roster to see how that worked out—and, in the process, turned a hilarious catchphrase on a T-shirt into one big lie.
Smith seized a unique opportunity in his second offseason in Atlanta.
TEN TAKEAWAYS
I love what the Falcons did with their team this week. Atlanta had set up a series of joint practices with the Jets before their preseason game in New Jersey, and when the league informed the teams that they would be moved to a Monday night time slot, Arthur Smith was he knows he was going to have some extra. time on his hands. He didn’t want the team to stay in a hotel in Jersey City for more than 24 hours—so he decided to try to get creative with the day between practice and the game, giving the players a chance to see something which normally would” t. As such, the Falcons first considered making their move a day earlier in Princeton (team president Rich McKay is an alum), before Smith got the idea, looking at the map, that makes the short drive to West Point. Owner Arthur Blank’s CEO, Steve Cannon, is a USMA graduate, so Smith spoke with him and got the ball rolling on what happened for the team on Sunday.
Smith led his morning walk before taking the players to lunch with the cadets, then a tour of the campus. “First of all, it’s an appreciation to see this leadership academy, how they operate, to get to look behind the walls of a place that most civilians don’t get to see,” Smith told me after the walkthrough. “Then, it’s the message I gave to the team. It’s not some kind of political statement, or trying to play G.I. Joe or soldiers—it is for us as a football team. We got field work and see if we can learn something from the way they train their cadets, their leadership, their leadership tactics. I’m grateful they let us here.”
It was a wonderful experience for Smith personally, also, his father had served in the Marines. In fact, before making the trip, his father repeated a story that Smith had heard before. In Vietnam in 1968, as company commander of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, he had joined the Army on a crusade, before telling his son to “tell whoever is in charge here that he could only do three weeks. in the army before he had to go back to the Marine Corps.” That family history, of course, added to the journey for Smith—who had read a lot about the campus, and about the coaching legacy of people like Bobby Knight and Mike Krzyzewski there, but had never been, and even coached football for a West Point alum (Collin Mooney) back in the Tennessee days.
“I’ve always heard it’s beautiful,” he said. And now he and a bunch of other guys who weren’t there know him for a fact, which, to me, makes a pretty good use of an otherwise quiet training camp day.
J.J. Watt taking vet days in camp is probably a sign that most senior men have. Why? Well, because Watt resisted it forever. He estimates, between the Texans and the Cardinals, he has been offered a relaxed camp schedule for the past seven years or so. He turned the layout every time. Until, that is, this summer.
“It’s hard,” Watt told me last week. “You’re an athlete, and I’ve always believed that you lead the guys, you have to be working with the guys. But not Bear Bryant two days. I think people are understanding more now. It’s a different league.”
Therefore, perhaps a little painfully, Watt accepted the offer this time, and went to the cadence of two days on, of a day off some of the other senior players of the Cardinals worked from it. The main impetus for him was, first, his age (he is now 33), and also the amount of time he missed: 42 of 97 games in the last six years, after playing in 80 of 80 during his first five years.
“The part I should have realized earlier is the most important thing in the NFL is the 17th Sunday and to get to the playoffs,” Watt said. “It’s extremely important to practice, it’s extremely important to be out there with the boys, it’s extremely important to be working on your game. But if you worked your ass off Wednesday in training camp and didn’t make it until Sunday in Week 8, it’s all for nothing. So for me I’m learning that, with a six-week training camp, the importance is to get to the season and to be healthy for the season, and to know that it’s O.K. if you want to let your body rest on a random Tuesday.” And he says that with the recognition that he hates watching practice, because, of course, he likes to be out there with the guys, and also because, “It’s boring.” But if it means playing in December and January? It would have been worth it. Here’s a few more things from my talk with Watt…
MMQB: What’s keeping you there?
Watt: Competitive drive. Just the desire to compete, the willingness to be with your team to contend for a championship. It’s what I do. As an athlete, as a competitor, you have to be out there, you have to be competing, you have to be working to be at the top of your game. And once that dies, I stop.
MMQB: Have you thought about leaving in the last few years?
Watt: There were some injuries that were more difficult than others, certainly. To say you never thought about it is just a lie. I would be lying. But no, especially not recently, I wasn’t. I feel really good. This camp, I felt great. I’m really looking forward to playing.
MMQB: How can you guys avoid the late season meltdown this time?
Watt: I think the first thing is the injuries. We have to stay strong. We’re 7–0 and I go down, Kyler [Murray] goes down, Hop [DeAndre Hopkins] goes down for a little bit. You start to lose some very important pieces for the team, which will hurt you. Also from a leadership standpoint, being able to deal with that adversity, having different guys out there and being able to say, Okay, we got this. The management of the difficulties and the maturity of the team, to be able to go through a difficult stretch of a game, or even if it is a difficult week or two, to be able to manage this. … That is something that we are definitely, as the leadership of this team, working on.
MMQB: Kyler had told me he thought the negativity got to the team late last year. Do you think the team learned from that?
Watt: I hope so. If you lose everything we did in the end, seven out of nine, then get your ass kicked in the playoffs, I hope you learned, I hope you don’t want to feel it again. And if you do, I don’t want it in my locker room.
I think the Steelers have a tough decision to make. Kenny Pickett was nails in the preseason—and the numbers reflect that. His two games so far…
• Against the Seahawks, Pickett went 13-of-15 for 95 yards, two touchdowns and a 132.6 passer rating. He led both touchdown drives and went three-and-out just once, playing the entire second half with, and against, a lot of guys who probably won’t be in the league in two weeks.
• Against the Jaguars, Pickett was 6-of-7 for 76 yards, a touchdown and a 151.6 rating. He led two drives, went three-and-out on one (although a holding penalty nullified a third-down conversion on that one) and led a touchdown drive on the other.
So add it up, and Pickett got seven possessions, led the Steelers’ offense to three touchdowns, went three-and-out twice (one of which, you could argue, wasn’t on him), and finished 19-of-22. throws for 171 yards and three touchdowns. Now, Mitch Trubisky has also been pretty decent (9-of-15, 123 yards, TD) in two preseason games, and he’s been really good in practice. But that’s the thing—Pickett’s hustle sometimes in practice seems to evaporate when the game lights come on, which fits his reputation from college. And his experience at Pitt helps, too. He was actually recruited there by Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada, then the Panthers’ OC, and ran a version of Canada’s offense in 2017 and ’18, before getting a steady diet of concepts of ‘ NFL style playing in the offense of former Steelers assistant Mark Whipple the last three years.
“Playing for Whip definitely helped a lot,” Pickett told me earlier in camp. And on top of that, the volume of defense he’s seen starting 49 games over five years helps shorten the learning curve. So… is Mike Tomlin going to start it? In a way, this reminds me a bit of where Bill Belichick was with the Patriots last year (and there are some similarities between Pickett and Mac Jones, who is not as athletic, but more consistently accurate than Pickett ), where Rookie proved to gain quickly. In the end, New England went with the rookie over Cam Newton, confident that he was ready and had the mental toughness to endure bumps, and knowing that playing in Year 1 would allow Jones to hit the land in the next year. All those elements exist with Pickett, too, I think. But thinking about going with the rookie, as the Steelers are, and pulling the trigger on him are two different things, especially when there’s a playoff roster on a side full of veterans whose fates in 2022 rest on that a call.
The Panthers’ decision should be easier. And I think it will come before, not after, this week’s game against the Bills. Maybe even Monday. There will be no surprises. Baker Mayfield was quite clearly the best quarterback in camp, and for a number of different reasons. A big one came on the only possession he played in Carolina’s first two preseason games. On the fifth snap of that 13-play, 54-yard drive that ended in a field goal, second-and-9 from the 50, Mayfield got the ball out of the shotgun and quickly he went through what was in front of him. Read first? Covered. Second reading? It’s not there. Boom, a ball takes out the third man in the progression, fullback Giovanni Ricci, for six yards downfield to get Carolina into a manageable third-and-3. That’s the kind of routine play that the Panthers weren’t making last year, and that was the idea for Mayfield in the first place—that he could get them at least an average quarterback of – the championship.
And on that snap, a nondescript one, to be sure, Mayfield showed spot-on vision, quick processing ability and situational awareness. No one would look at that throw and say, “field general”, but that’s just what Mayfield was in the moment. That doesn’t mean he’s going to be a superstar this year. It just means he has a shot to be pretty good, and Carolina thinks it will be good enough to get a promising young roster to make a big move. And Mayfield also acquitted himself well with his teammates and coaches, which is the best here. The coaches sent him the playbook in early July during a non-contact period, and when he reported a few weeks later, they were really impressed with the mastery he had achieved for a complex scheme without the help of anyone else. He also showed humility coming out of a rocky exit from Cleveland, and was respectful to enter the quarterback’s room, melding quickly with Sam Darnold and Matt Corral, even though they were all competing for the same thing. So do you add that stuff to what Mayfield’s shown on the field in the way of processing and instincts and vision on the field? And yes, that decision is coming soon.
The Patriots will probably trade … someone. New England is really tight for the cap, and my sense is that they would like to use any surplus they may have at one position or another to alleviate that and maybe pick up a draft pick or two. The guy I know for sure they’ve talked to other teams about is Isaiah Wynn, their first round pick from 2018. Wynn, however, is on a $10.4 million option for the fifth year, which made it difficult to move a man. who, four years after being drafted, is still considered a tackle/guard tweener.
The other place where New England could potentially get calls is receiver. There has been speculation on Nelson Agholor, but his big number ($9 million base, plus $1 million in roster bonuses per game) makes him harder to trade. He also emerged as a leader in the receivers room in Foxborough after a really strong offseason, which could make the Patriots reluctant to move him.
So … maybe Kendrick Bourne? His finances are manageable ($3.75 million, plus $750K in roster bonuses per game), he’s shown some frustration with the offensive changes over the past few months, and he just finished with a weird week (fight in joint practices with Carolina, scratched for the game). I think the Patriots will get some calls on him, at least. And I think they feel compelled to listen too, because of their own situation.
The Buccaneers’ offensive line situation should not be overlooked. We saw what happened last year in the playoffs when Tampa Bay had some injuries up front, and the damage done already this summer was significant. Guards Alex Cappa (free agency, to Bengals) and Ali Marpet (retirement) left. Center Ryan Jensen is out for the foreseeable future, if not the season, with a knee injury (we’ll have more on that in the quick-hitters). And on Saturday, guard Aaron Stinnie, who had started games in a pinch the past few years for the Bucs, tore his ACL and MCL against the Titans.
That leaves the Bucs with former Patriot Shaq Mason and rookie Luke Goedeke at the guard spots, and second-year pro Robert Hainsey at center. Of the three, only Mason has an NFL start on his resume, and none has started a game in a Bucs uniform. While Goedeke and Hainsey were both top-100 draft picks, and there’s potential there, neither has started an NFL game (Hainsey only dressed for nine games last year). Because of all this, and the fact that they have a 45-year-old quarterback who has had problems with pressure in the middle during his career (and I mean that in a relative sense, considering that this is Tom Brady we are) . talking about), I’d say there’s going to be a lot to handle for the Buccaneers’ offensive staff, at least early in the year. Assuming, of course, Brady comes back soon from his pre-planned camp sabbatical (just kidding, of course … though it will be interesting to see what he has to say about all this).
Roquan Smith’s bad hold-in ended the most predictable way it was. Smith is a really good player. But he’s also a sawed-off, instinct-driven, heat-seeking missile of a linebacker in a league increasingly looking for size, length and athleticism at his position. So it is not suitable for every team to begin with. And even with those where he’s good, there’s been a general devaluation of his position across the NFL (13 off-ball linebackers have an APY of $10 million or more; 31 edge rushers do that, with 14 for $ 16 million or more) . Which means for Smith or the Bears to find a trade partner, they would have to find a team that Smith fits stylistically (not exactly a good fit for Matt Eberflus’ scheme, based on what Eberflus had in Indianapolis), willing to pay the top of -market in a position where many teams will not and give up draft capital premium on everything. That’s a lot of boxes to check. Evidently, more than any team was ready to score.
Jordan Love’s move forward is big news for the Packers. Of course, it’s good for Green Bay to see progress and have Aaron Rodgers’ potential successor in place, in case Rodgers leaves after this year. But it’s also good for Green Bay that progress is on tape accessible to the rest of the league—because if Rodgers is back in 2023, then teams that might be interested in trading for Love will have some tangible proof that progress is happening.
For his part, Matt LaFleur said after Friday’s win over the Saints that Love is “light years ahead” of where he was even last year. “I think the game slowed down for him,” LaFleur told reporters. “I see a much more decisive player. I think it will lead to a much more effective player.” Now, it wasn’t perfect, to be sure. His decision-making still needs improvement, and the Saints coaches have noticed how much better he is out of play-action than he is in the dropback game. But now, against where he was, He looks like a man who has a chance. So maybe Love will get a real shot to play next year, whether it’s in Green Bay or someone else. And if he does, we all get an interesting case study in seeing the results of a quarterback being developed differently than they usually are these days (Rodgers, interestingly enough, is a late first-rounder who had to wait three years to become a starter).
Working on that Rams section, I have some random numbers to share. As we said before, they are tied for sixth in most draft picks (the Cowboys, Colts and Broncos also have 53) over the last six years. Who has the most? And the least? Glad you asked. Here’s what the numbers showed…
1. Vikings 672. Packers 583. Ravens 564. Bengals 555. Commanders 54
1. Saints 342. Chiefs 403. Texans 41T-4. Bears, Dolphins, Eagles, Falcons 42
So what does that tell you? Probably not a ton. The two teams with the lowest picks, New Orleans and Kansas City, have each been in the playoffs in all six years of that period. The Saints have less because they like packaging to move up for specific guys. The Chiefs have less because of trades for Patrick Mahomes and Frank Clark. Both, of course, did a nice job.
On the other hand, Minnesota, Green Bay and Baltimore all claimed during this stretch, so what they are doing is working for them. And so I think what you learn here is a truism that’s not that exciting—picks are really only worth the players you turn them into.
We’ve got quick takeaways for the week, as we get back on the road. Here are 10 of them for you, right now…
• I don’t expect any definitive statement on Jensen for the Bucs for a while. Knee damage is complicated. He and the team, indeed, are leaving the door open for a return, but I’m told it won’t happen until the playoffs, and probably deep into the playoffs, and even that may not be very likely. Either way, it will be a few months before they have a better idea of whether there is a real chance he can play this season.
• The Bills look like a machine right now, and you can even see it with new guys, both older (O.J. Howard) and younger (James Cook, Khalil Shakir). When I was in their camp, I felt like they had this kind of quality that you saw watching the 2007 Patriots or the ’13 Seahawks practice—just the way it looks. Saturday’s preseason game just backed that up for me.
• I don’t know if there’s anything to it, and maybe it has to do with pre-combine training or the more intentional ramp up to camp, but it feels like a lot of rookies are going down with pretty significant injuries. Among them over the last few days: Panthers QB Matt Corral, Bears S Jaquan Brisker and Rams OL Logan Bruss.
• Packers bringing OT David Bakhtiari back PUP is a really important development. If he and Elgton Jenkins, who came off the roster last week, are at full health, a roster spot would become a major strength—and perhaps one of the league’s best lines. And I think the team has Jenkins (one of the best linemen in the league, who can play all five spots) at tackle well when the season starts, as was quietly the plan, to stop to Bakhtiari and keep the three youngsters (Jon Runyan Jr., Josh Myers, Royce Newman) together inside.
• It’s pretty wild that KaVontae Turpin took two kicks to the house Saturday night. Turpin’s story is a complicated one. He was fired from TCU in 2018 after a domestic violence incident with his girlfriend. As a result, since ’19, he has had to traverse the edges of the professional football world, playing in Fan Controlled Football, the Spring League and a European championship before winning USFL MVP honors -New Jersey Generals in the spring. . This got him his shot in Dallas. And he seems to be making the most of it.
• It’s hard not to rule out Lions LB Malcolm Rodriguez if you’re watching Hard Knocks.
• If I’m a Jaguars fan, I’m pretty optimistic right now about where the new staff has Trevor Lawrence. He’s still not perfect, and Doug Pederson said himself that Lawrence needs to calm down early in games. But they have him playing fast, and doing so has put the generational physical tools he has on display.
• With Joe Flacco likely to start the Jets’ opener, I think it’s worth mentioning here that he really made a difference for Zach Wilson in New York. Perhaps the biggest lesson Wilson learned? Flacco told him to focus on what the coaches are asking him to do, rather than trying to process every last thing that is happening on the field. The Jets staff saw Wilson take that lesson, and start playing more instinctively and less robotically, before he got hurt.
• At the risk of sounding like a Buckeye homer, Saints rookie Chris Olave looks like he did at Ohio State so far on an NFL camp—smooth, savvy and lightning fast. Now, that doesn’t mean he’s an automatic All-Pro or anything like that. But generally, in my experience, if a guy looks like he made it to college right away, it’s usually an indicator that his game is translating quickly. And as I understand it, the Packers game was a continuation of a nice stretch of camp for him.
• I think many teams will be fielding starters for the final weekend of preseason games, which precedes, of course, next week’s layoff. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be guys worth watching. And I think Commanders rookie QB Sam Howell is one.
SIX FROM THE SIDELINE
1. The new Manti Te’o documentary on Netflix is absolutely shocking, especially when you consider how much Te’o lost as a result of the situation. I’m not even sure that Naya Tuiasosopo was properly held accountable for throwing someone else’s life into complete chaos.
2. It will be fun to see what happens with Quinn Ewers in Texas now that he has been named a starter. I heard he’s pretty rough, but a good boy and one blessed with a ridiculous arm. Can the Longhorns be good enough around him for him to develop the right way? How will you look against Nick Saban in 19 days? Much to consider, and look forward to, with this. (Also, Arch Manning is coming to Austin in January!)
3. Urban Meyer’s run in the NFL was, of course, a trainwreck. That said, he’s always been really good on TV, so it makes sense that Fox would want him back. What will be interesting, however, is how received on the road, with the Big Noon Kickoff will be on campus on a weekly basis for the first time this fall.
4. I had no idea Spaceman was still pitching at 75 years old.
5. Do you feel the Lakers giving LeBron James a two-year, $97.1 million extension … might not be the best idea? He turns 39 during the first year of the deal (2023–24), and 40 during his second year (2024–25). And in the numbers he is doing, if he is no longer the superstar he was, in a league with a salary cap, it seems that the Lakers will have some big problems. I hope he’s still the LeBron he was, for the record. I just have a hard time seeing it happen.
6. A good story from my friend Paul Kuharsky about how youth sports became ridiculous. It’s pretty easy to see for me, even with my oldest only 7, how the clubs have surpassed everything. Covering professional sports for a living, I feel comfortable saying this—no one is winning a scholarship in elementary school.
BEST OF THE NFL INTERNET
In addition to Brunell and Warner … Matt Hasselbeck, Ty Detmer, Aaron Brooks and, of course, Rodgers, were among the backups the Packers developed behind Brett Favre over the years. He feels like teams value picks too much to do that anymore, but the old Ron Wolf philosophy was a good one—if it works, you get three years of good depth from a young quarterback, then a pick or picks back for him when his contract is ending.
… when training camp coverage gets a little too detailed.
I think I tore three ligaments just watching someone try to hook Moore there.
Pretty cool—Garrett Wilson congratulates his old high school buddy Brett Baty on his MLB debut…
… and here’s the reaction in that high school to Baty hitting a home run in his first at-bat (technically, that’s not an NFL tweet, but I’ll post it anyway).
I give the fight I saw in Patriots-Panthers 7.8.
This is probably 8.2. Pickett really shows a lot of fire out there in the end zone stands.
Can’t wait! (But isn’t there actually a game in Ireland next week?)
I always run out for these.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
I’ll be hitting up a handful of teams this week to wrap up my camp travel—and I’m excited to get back out there (even if Florida in August isn’t really my speed). And as it was the case, you can catch up with me with the takeaways, whether through video, article or Twitter, from each of the five that I will see between Tuesday and Thursday.
Last week, we got some on the Patriots and Panthers.
And if you were following all along? We appreciate it, and we have a lot more coming for you as the season draws ever closer.
How much is Joe Burrow’s contract?
"One agent responded that he would be looking for a fully guaranteed five-year, $275 million deal, citing his expectation of a somewhat stagnant salary cap in 2023 followed by a ‘significant bump’ in ’24 ." Burrow led the NFL in completion percentage (70.4%) and yards per attempt (8.9) last season.
How much does Joe Burrow earn in a year? Joe Burrow signed a 4-year, $36,190,137 contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, including a signing bonus of $23,880,100, $36,190,137 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $9,047,534.
How much money does Joe Burrow make from endorsements?
Forbes can confirm that: In addition to the four-year, $36.2 million contract he signed with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020, which paid him $24.5 million in salary and bonuses last season and $2.3 million this season, the 25-year-old quarterback collects an estimated $2 million a year from endorsements, appearances, …
How long is Joe Burrow’s rookie contract?
After being selected by the Cincinnati Bengals as their first overall draft pick, Burrow signed with the team to a four-year rookie contract in July 2020, with the option to stay for a fifth year in the 2023.
How many games has Trey Lance started in the NFL?
Biography. Appeared in 19 games (17 starts) in three years (2018-20) at North Dakota State and completed 208 of 318 passes. (65.4 pct.)
How long has trey lance been in the NFL?
What is Trey Lance QB rating?
Comparing Jimmy G’s Madden NFL 23 QB rankings, Lance Garoppolo (77) is tied for 18th, ahead of Jameis Winston (76) of the New Orleans Saints and tied with Baker Mayfield of the Carolina Panthers. Meanwhile, Lance is at 72, tied for the 28th highest rate with Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions.
What is Trey Lance salary?
Trey Lance signed a 4-year, $34,105,275 contract with the San Francisco 49ers, including a signing bonus of $22,163,836, $34,105,275 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $8,526,319. In 2022, Lance will earn a base salary of $2,210,240, while carrying a cap hit of $7,751,199 and a dead cap value of $27,904,316.
How much is Trey Lance salary?
Trey Lance signed a 4-year, $34,105,275 contract with the San Francisco 49ers, including a signing bonus of $22,163,836, $34,105,275 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $8,526,319. In 2022, Lance will earn a base salary of $2,210,240, while carrying a cap hit of $7,751,199 and a dead cap value of $27,904,316.
What is Trey’s sermon salary? Current contract Trey Sermon signed a 4-year, $4,872,934 contract with the San Francisco 49ers, including a signing bonus of $903,952, $903,952 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $1,218,234.
How much is Joe Burrow’s contract?
“One agent responded that he would be looking for a fully guaranteed five-year, $275 million deal, citing his expectation of a somewhat stagnant salary cap in 2023 followed by a ‘significant bump’ in ’24. ” Burrow led the NFL in completion percentage (70.4%) and yards per attempt (8.9) last season.
Who is the highest paid player on the 49ers?
Deebo Samuel and the San Francisco 49ers have reportedly agreed to terms on a three-year, $71.55 million contract extension that could be worth up to $73.5 million. This puts Samuel’s average annual salary for the new years added between $23.85 million and $24.5 million.
How much does Jimmy G make a year?
Current contract Jimmy Garoppolo signed a 5-year, $137,500,000 contract with the San Francisco 49ers, including a $7,000,000 signing bonus, $74,100,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $27,500,000.
Will Jimmy G be traded? However, the rumor was all based on an apparent conversation between a radio host and Garoppolo’s agent Don Yee. On Monday, Yee told Pelissero that the conversation never happened. “Over the weekend, a report came out claiming that I had spoken to a member of the media about his future, but the report was false,” Yee said.
Is Jimmy G under contract next year?
Garoppolo received a $7 million signing bonus and a $28 million roster bonus as part of his first-year salary. His 2018 and $7.5 million of his 2019 salary are fully guaranteed bringing the total guaranteed to $48.7 million. $74.1 million of the contract is guaranteed for injury.
What did the 49ers trade for Jimmy G?
2017 Season On October 31, 2017, the Patriots traded Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for the 49ers’ second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. He made his 49ers debut in Week 12 in the final minute of the 49ers’ game against the Seattle Seahawks after starter C. J.
