NFL Preseason Week 1 Story Lines

18:47Steven Ruiz:There's a CYA aspect to this. Like cover your ass if you're Zach Taylor and you subject Joe Burrow to hits and then he gets hurt. I mean, that's a fireable offense in my opinion.

18:58Diante Lee:Yeah, that's why Deontay, I wanted to get out in front of it and make sure on the record before the game actually takes place that I think it's a bad idea so it doesn't look like second guessing? Listen, man, like I can say this on a coach, as a coach on a much lower level, you come out of a season where you couldn't run the ball, you want to know the first thing you install? 12 personnel. We're talking power. We're talking inside zone. We're starting there. You give up a bunch of explosive plays defensively, you're starting with all your cover zero blitzes when you open up the season. You know, your first install, you want to be as aggressive as possible, right?

19:30And I feel like, like Stephen was saying, like you were saying, Sheila, I feel like this is learning the wrong lesson from the start of last season. If you want to fix the problem, the issue was that your defensive front and your offensive line weren't where they needed to be to start the season. And that's why you couldn't control the line of scrimmage against the Patriots. And you ended up not being able to hold on to your lead when it looked like you had an opportunity to go win the game against the Chiefs early in the season as well. That's also not something that you're going to, you're not going to fix 2024's problems in 2025.

19:59And that is one thing from a coaching perspective I don't get for Zach Taylor, because this is not Brian Daywell, who's always got to be looking over his shoulder like, OK, is today going to be the day that the Mara family decides that they're sick of looking at me? If you're Zach Taylor, you've got a Super Bowl appearance in 2021 that all of all the Bengals fans that I see online seem to still be clutching on to. I don't think that anybody's upset with anything other than the fact that they did not make the playoffs last year. And that can very easily be fixed if you believe that the run they went on from October to the end of the year is a truer representation of what we saw than what they were at the beginning of the season.

20:33And I do think so. And we just came off of Joe Burrow having his best year as a quarterback in spite of the fact that he didn't get a lot of preseason reps, in spite of the fact that we were concerned about his hand health and that he was dealing with something that was relatively unprecedented for quarterbacks in terms of what he was dealing with his thumb and all of that. Why does he need to take preseason reps? Do I need to see him throw a fade ball to know that he can throw a fade ball? I don't need to see that in the preseason. I know that he's going to give the ball to Jamar Chase when he's open.

21:00I know he's going to give the ball to Tee Higgins on one-on-one coverage and that those guys are going to go one on the perimeter. If you want to show me something, pull out your backups and still show me that you're going to put a bunch of tight ends on the field that you can control the line of scrimmage up front, that your defensive front is moving forward with Al Golden as defensive coordinator. I want to see an identity change in the trenches. There is absolutely nothing that Joe Burrow can do as a quarterback in the preseason to change my outlook for the Cincinnati Bengals besides get hurt.

21:29And the one thing that makes it more likely than any that he gets hurt is him being out on the field, like Steven said, with a bunch of backups that are not invested at all in whether or not Joe Burrow finishes the game healthily. These are guys that are trying to make the roster. that are trying to get their reps against other teams that are trying to compete for a championship. I don't get it at all. This to me seems very performative, a performative toughness type of thing that you see from football coaches sometimes and are losing the plot. Just go out and win games in a regular season. That's all that anybody's asking at a CIMC right now.

21:58Steven Ruiz:I do wonder if part of this is them trying to follow Kansas City's lead because Andy Reid is notorious for running a tough camp. Patrick Mahomes plays a lot of preseason. He plays into the second quarter sometimes, which I think is ridiculous. And I would have the same criticism for Kansas City's approach that I do for Cincinnati's right now.

22:21Steven Ruiz:But like Deontay said, nothing we're going to see in this preseason, nothing the coaching staff is going to see in this preseason is going to affect their outlook. So I just don't get the point. And if you're Zach Taylor, you just want to be that anonymous coach that nobody really ever thinks about. You don't want to be a guy. You don't want to become the main character.

22:36Diante Lee:Yes. You don't want to see your name in a headline. Yeah. Zach Taylor. You don't want to see anytime Zach Taylor's name is in a headline. It's not because except for the one time when he took the when he went to the bar right in Cincinnati and celebrated with what when was that was after a playoff win. Remember that? That's the one time I remember it was like, oh, that's pretty cool. He's going there and buying everyone drinks because they made, you know, they made it to the Super Bowl or NFC championship, whatever it was. But it just I think you guys said it best that they're trying to solve a problem that cannot be solved.

23:06Diante Lee:by the actions that they're taking is how I feel. And I looked it up, Ruiz. They do have joint practices. It looks like against the Bears. So it's like you're going to be able to practice against another team. That feels like a nice tune-up. Ben Baby of ESPN pointed out this is the first time since Burrow's rookie season that he's not dealing with any kind of injury or recovery in training camp. Why embrace that? Why are you wagering something going wrong? Yes. What are you doing? Do not. And I know it'll probably be quick game in the bulk, but all it takes is one weird, fluky thing to happen.

23:43Diante Lee:And all of a sudden this becomes the biggest story. So I don't want to, I understand football players have to play and they can get hurt at any time, but it's a matter of risk. Like what they don't, he doesn't have to play here. It's not worth it to have him play here. So that's something, if I'm a Bengals fan, I'm just going to be kind of holding my breath, watching that game Thursday night and then the following week also. So he'll get some reps against the Eagles and then against the Commanders the following. By the way, last thing on this before we go to break. I did see a quote from Jamar Chase where they're like, you know, Joe wants to play in the preseason.

24:19Diante Lee:Do you feel like, you know, it's... And he was like, no, man, like I held out last year. My legs felt great all season. He's like, yeah. He started laughing. I think it said, I can't remember if that was the Athletic or ESPN. He's like, no, I was good. I don't need to play in the preseason. So I thought that was hilarious. All right, let's take a break. We come back. We go around the league with some other stuff we're watching in the preseason. This episode is brought to you by 20th Century Studios, The Dog Stars. Only in theaters and IMAX August 28th. Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns with a gripping post-apocalyptic thriller when a mysterious radio transmission shatters a lone pilot's isolated existence.

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25:13Diante Lee:All right, we are back on the Ringer NFL show. Ruiz, what do you got? What else is on your mind?

25:19Steven Ruiz:I'm looking at 7 o 'clock on NFL Network on Friday. It's not the best way to spend your Friday night, but Cleveland at Carolina. I'm in for the Shandor watch. We're already in for the slot bowls? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm not going to want the slop in like October, you know, in the heat of the season. I can't watch a game like that. But in August, it's perfect. And I hope Shador plays a lot. I just want to see him play just so we don't have to react to these out of context training camp stats and these clips where it looks like he would take five sacks in one play. I want to see it in live action and see how he reacts to a NFL pocket.

25:54Steven Ruiz:That would be very. I feel like he's one of those guys where you're going to know instantly. Is this guy going to last in the NFL or is his time running out? And then on the other side, Bryce Young, if he plays, and if he plays a significant amount of time, I just want to see how confident he looks. And if he can pick up where he left off last year, where I think over the second half, I still have questions about his long-term viability, the same questions I had before the draft. But he established himself as a player who probably belongs in the NFL and probably as a starter. And I think if he can continue that and looks confident in the pocket, then I would be a little more bullish on the Panthers.

26:26Steven Ruiz:but like from the training camp clips I've seen, he's doing a lot of running around and I don't know if that's the offensive line or if that's him, but it's going to be fascinating to watch him in an actual football environment.

26:37Diante Lee:Yeah, Sanders is going to start that game per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. So, I mean, they've had this weird, Kenny Pickett and Dylan Gabriel, both have hamstring injuries. Joe Flacco's not going to play. The preseason is,

26:51Steven Ruiz:Joe Flacco's too good for the preseason, but Joe Burrow, go out there.

26:56Diante Lee:That's right. They're not risking it with Flacco, but the other team in Ohio is risking it with Joe Burrow. Now they signed Tyler Huntley and it's just been sort of, I'm with you. It's been a weird sort of camp for Shadour Sanders. It feels like I don't really have a handle on how he's looked. Has it been really bad? Has it been really good? Has it been somewhere in between? He had arm soreness just on Saturday where he sat out most of practice. He hasn't taken any reps with the first string offense per the athletic. and now he's going to be out there, what, Saturday to Friday, so less than a week after he sits out of practice, he's going to be out there starting for them in a preseason game.

27:35Diante Lee:And I don't know, Deontay, like I had this one written down too, and I'm just looking at this. This is as hopeless of a situation. Most NFL fan bases this time of year, if you say something or write something critical, they're going to fire back, defend their team. That's fine. That's fandom. A lot of times you can be like, oh, they're just being irrational. That's okay. Check back with me in October or November. I don't, I don't even know what the bullish case is for the Browns. Like they just seem like they're going to be irrelevant by like week two, week three. You know, I thought their defense had a chance and then cornerback Barton Emerson suffers the Achilles linebacker, Jordan Hicks retires.

28:13Diante Lee:J okay. He's not playing. You don't have a little bit better, but yeah, it's like, I don't know if I can get, maybe it'll be a little bit better, but not good enough. Like it was two years ago where it can carry you to a playoff birth. The quarterback situation is terrible. Like, is this just a situation where Browns fans are like, all right, we'll sit, we'll tailgate, we'll sip through it. And we have two first round picks next year. It just seems like one of those situations, but I don't know. You're at least, at least there's some anticipation, I guess, with how Shador Sanders looks. Cause he's going to play in the preseason.

28:44Look, I think that we wrote the book on this team in March. They, they should hang the banner of, we kept miles Garrett. That, that would be one objective. there were really two objectives we kept miles garrett and we were able to get a friendly kind of exit from the whole deshaun watson era those have been the two if there is something to be to feel successful about as a browns fan you check those two boxes i don't know if there's anything else to be gained in 2025 if you look at all the injuries and what this quarterback situation is i don't think that if you're a browns fan you're probably not going to feel good about this team until the 2026 draft.

29:19And even that is kind of contingent upon where you land. Outside of Shadour in this preseason, and maybe things look good, right? Like even in doing the scouting for him, coming into the draft, there was a lot to feel optimistic about. The guy will hang in the pocket. He will take some hits. He will throw the ball in the middle of the field at times. He's decent with extending plays. You don't have the best arm talent. And I think I made the point that he's a hyper-trained quarterback. And sometimes I say that as a backhanded compliment, but usually what it does is it provides you a baseline. So when you're in game situations, you don't look the way the Josh Allen look for the first two years of his career, right?

29:55Like you have a certain baseline of understanding how to operate a pro style offense. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if he shows up and he's dumping the ball off underneath and getting the ball to tight ends and throwing your hitch routes and your curl routes and everything looks good against these very regulated zone defenses. And we all feel very warm about Shadour. And as long as there's something positive to say about him and that quarterback room again if you're a Browns fan you should feel good the worst thing that could happen is you get like the CJ Stroud preseason game where he shows up in his first drive he throws a pick against New England or whatever and now you've got to hear oh this might have been what a horrible idea to even bring this guy in and now the owner's being asked again about what the situation's going to be you've got these hurt quarterbacks people are going to start asking who's going to get cut is it going to be one of the rookies if not both you want to avoid that by any means.

30:44So I feel like any completion you get from Shadur, no matter how many yards it gains, you are just clapping up the fact that you're not going to have to litigate everything that has happened so far over the last calendar year.

30:54Steven Ruiz:Yeah, this is the best it's going to be all season. This is your Super Bowl.

30:58Diante Lee:You're right. I mean, it seems like a joke. It's really not a joke. I think it's not hyperbole. The most likely scenario is like other than week one, where you You can always build up a little juice for week one because anything can happen. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. Maybe I'll be wrong, but it just, I don't see the upside. In addition to what Deontay said, they did get the extra first round pick. So watch on Saturdays, which college quarterback do you like? Because you're probably going to be in the market there. But this is just a bad, bad situation in Cleveland. So we'll see. But I love it.

31:32Diante Lee:Ruiz. I mean, Ruiz is a football sicko. He just recommended that you sit down Friday night, seven o 'clock. on a Friday. How dare you guys? I'm a Panthers fan. You would not be spending your typical Friday night watching Panthers ball.

31:52Steven Ruiz:Preseason is watching stuff like this and judging other teams' draft picks. It's a great opportunity to do the performative film grind thing. Like, hey, man, I'm pulling up all 22 of preseason film for the Panthers. That's how deep in the muck that I am. You won't do that from me, but there are some people out there that will do this.

32:13Diante Lee:I'm not doing that, Deontay. Don't look my way. I know you took the summer vacation shot, but you can take a shot at me for this too. I know Shield won't be doing this. You're right about that. You're damn right about that.

32:24Steven Ruiz:If I watch one second of preseason all 22, I'm going to be very disappointed in myself.

32:31Diante Lee:Browns, Shador Sanders Friday night against the Panthers. All right, Deontay, you're up. What do you got? What's next? I'm going to go with the quasi-rookie here and take it to Minnesota. I'm really fascinated to see just how much J.J. McCarthy plays. I'm interested to see how Kevin O 'Connell calls an offense with a guy like J.J. McCarthy at the helm. This, to me, is the biggest ball of clay type of project that he's taken on. I would say when Kirk Cousins came in, he profiled honestly not that far apart from what J.J. McCarthy was coming out of Michigan. Almost like robotic, he's going to get rid of the ball rather than get hit.

33:05You're not going to see him push the ball down the field very often unless it's specifically designed. And then what you saw ultimately, especially in the year where Kirk Cousins ultimately tore his Achilles, was that it seemed like Kevin O 'Connell finally got him to cut it loose a little bit, like being willing to hang, take the hits, push the ball down the field. And it looked like maybe Kirk Cousins was going to find yet another layer in his game as he approached his mid to late 30s. And obviously the injury ultimately kind of derails that. I think with J.J. McCarthy, you now have an opportunity to show some Sam Darnold film, to show some end of that phase with Kirk Cousins film to a guy like that and say, you've got the arm talent, you have the mobility, you've just got to be willing to take some of those chances.

33:49The chances that he didn't take at Michigan. You always saw him get the ball to Colston Loveland because that was my easy kind of get out of jail free card. If I'm in trouble, I get the ball to Roman Wilson, easy get out of jail free card. Now we kind of get to see J.J. McCarthy in an offense that at its best has been designed to aggressively attack the middle of the field in that kind of 12 to 18 yard range. I would not say in scouting JJ McCarthy that that was the kind of player that you were looking at. So it's going to be fascinating just to see who's doing the tailoring here. Is McCarthy trying to meet Kevin O 'Connell where he's most comfortable or has Kevin O 'Connell augmented the offense, I think, to better suit what JJ McCarthy was coming out of Michigan is going to be a big question that I'm looking to see whether or not it gets answered in the preseason.

34:31Steven Ruiz:I feel like the best of Sam Darnold's film last year was when he was attacking that area of the field you're talking about and layering balls over second-level defenders. And that was the thing that we've talked about this during the offseason. Like, Changi McCarthy has a strong arm. Does he have a talented, an overly talented arm that's able to put some finesse on it? Can he throw different pitches? And I think this offense, if it's gonna, this passing game in particular, if it's gonna get back to where it was and the highs that it enjoyed last year, he's gonna have to be able to do that. If not, it's gonna look different and it's going to be an offense that kind of holds its quarterback's hand by necessity.

35:05Steven Ruiz:And he's another one of these quarterbacks, similar to Shador, where it's really hard to tell how he's performing in camp. Like you hear from some people, he's struggling, the ball's hitting the ground a lot. You hear from other people and he looks amazing. His arm looks great. I just want to see it for myself. I want to see it in a live context too. And I think this is going to be one of those games that I am tuning in for.

35:22Diante Lee:Yeah, shout out to the Vikings beat writers. because I feel like it's very easy when you're covering a young quarterback that your audience is excited about to really be like, oh, you know, he's crushing it. And just from the reporting I read, I was reading Alec Lewis at The Athletic today. It's kind of what you said, Ruiz. I don't think anyone knows that O 'Connell is sort of, you know, they're kind of like, he's had some good days. There's stuff he needs to work on. It's not just glowing reports every day that, you know, watch out. J.J. McCarthy's going to take the league by storm. And to Deontay's point, I think this is a pretty, all right, this is going to be dramatic.

35:59Diante Lee:So it's the preseason. So take it with a grain of salt. It feels like kind of a big week for McCarthy because they have preseason game and then they have joint practices next week against the Patriots. So to what you're saying, where we're kind of like, we don't really know how he's performed so far. Now you see him in these environments. You get different sets of eyes on him. We'll all be able to watch the preseason game. You'll get, you know, reporters from New England and national people be watching it. Oh, you'll be there. There you go. So you'll have eyes on him for us next week. So I think that's going to be interesting to see how he does in those environments.

36:32Diante Lee:You know, I think, again, the Athletics said he had his best practice probably this summer on Saturday. They're trying to focus on, like, making good decisions, not turning the ball over. And I do trust their coaching staff. I know we, Flores obviously deserves credit on the defensive side of the ball. And then O 'Connor, I feel like they'll have a plan. Like, when they go into the season, hey, what has he shown he can do? What has he shown he needs work on? Let's not just throw everything at him at once. What concepts does he like? Can we run the ball? Can we not put him in tough situations? All those things, I feel like they are well-equipped to do those things because we just saw it with Sam Darnold last year.

37:11Diante Lee:He had never had a full season the way he had last year under this coaching staff, under Kevin O 'Connell. So I'm with you. McCarthy just continues to be one of the more fascinating players in the NFL as we kind of count down to week one and what this thing's going to look like. Only other note I had on the Vikings was Jordan Addison. That suspension came down today. First three games of the season, he's out. So it goes to kind of what we're talking about, that, hey, it should be a good environment for him. Well, all right, first three weeks might not be as good. You're a little thin. Jefferson's had the injury.

37:44Diante Lee:They expect him back week one, but it might not be as conducive to a young quarterback playing well as maybe we thought it might be several months ago. So he'll be back after that. They're at the Bears, home against the Falcons, and home against the Bengals to start their season. All right, take one more break. We come back, we'll see. What do we have left? Any other preseason storylines we still want to get to? We'll get to that when we come back. This episode is brought to you by Boar's Head. It may have been years ago, but I still remember the feeling of unpacking my kids' lunchboxes after school and to find nothing left.

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39:52Diante Lee:All right, we are back on the Ringer NFL show. I feel like this doesn't usually, usually I have like, you know, extras and I don't get to them. This time I got to use the extras because I had Shador written down. I had Pete Carroll written down. I had JJ McCarthy written down. And we have to get to a guy who we've talked about before. But if you told me I could only watch, well, it might be McCarthy, But he would be on the short list. Anthony Richardson is starting for the Indianapolis Colts. Now, we've seen little snippets. Ooh, that looks like a good play. Ooh, nice highlight level throw. All right.

40:27Diante Lee:Reports, interesting. He's doing stuff that he didn't do last year. All those things with Anthony Richardson. He's going to play a quarter and a half Thursday to start the game. This is per the athletics, James Boyd. And then Daniel Jones will play a half quarter. And then for the second game, they'll flip that. Daniel Jones will play a quarter and a half and Anthony Richardson will play a half quarter. So what does it look like? You know, is there consistency? Is he thrown into the second row? Is he shaking off a defender and throwing it 70 yards? We know with Anthony Richardson, everything is in play.

41:04Diante Lee:This might be the only time to look at a quarterback's a dot in a preseason game just to kind of check it out. How does it compare to last year when it was 15 or whatever it was? But I feel like if you're a Colts fan and you're a Richardson fan and you're holding out hope, at least you still have that hope going into preseason game number one, Ruiz.

41:25Steven Ruiz:Yeah, I think the guy is two years younger than Bo Nix. He hasn't played a lot of football. There's still a lot for him to prove. But I think I said this a couple of pods ago. I feel like with him, it's going to be very easy to tell if he has checked those necessary boxes or not. Like, can the guy complete a pass under five yards? Can he complete a check down? Can he get it to the running back? I know he can throw one, but can he complete a pass? And I don't think it's going to take a lot of reps to figure that out. And he apparently worked on his throwing motion. So we're going to be able to see that.

41:53Steven Ruiz:And we're going to see how that allows him to be more accurate underneath. And then the decision making. I think even going back to last year's playoffs, we saw a couple of bad decisions. I think there was that one nationally televised game against Cincinnati where Kirk Herbschick first brought up the idea of benching him for Joe Flacco. He turned out to be right. I know I was crapping on him that night, and I was wrong, so I'm going to take the hell there. But I think if we see a professional display from him, I've never been more excited to see a check down in preseason. I want to see what it looks like.

42:24Diante Lee:Yeah. Deontay, what are your expectations? I don't know that you're going to watch it live, but I'm sure at some point you will watch the Anthony Richardson drop back. How much are you buying that this guy is going to look different, that we'll be able to tell differences right away versus, hey, it was a nice storyline in the summer, but he looks kind of exactly like the guy I watched last year. Well, that's what's interesting about him, right? Like I would say that he exists on a totally different paradigm from Shadur Sanders and J.J. McCarthy that we talked about earlier in the show. where for a lot of reasons, even if things went poorly for either of those guys, you can kind of explain it away.

43:03I think that their play style is much different from Anthony Richardson, so it will be much easier to say like, hey, man, that's just kind of within the flow of a preseason game. Stakes are low. You're probably not seeing the full offense, et cetera, et cetera, and move on. Unfortunately for Richardson, he's not a guy where it's just, oh, we've got to cut down on your turnover problems. Okay, and if you get through a preseason with no strip sacks and no interceptions, we can feel good about it. It's not just, oh, we've got to cut down on your sacks problem. And if your average time to throw is lower than it usually is, that's a sign of progress as well.

43:37Unfortunately for Anthony Richardson, he is maybe the one quarterback in the NFL where every single throw is going to be evaluated as the most important throw that he has made in his NFL career up to this point. And I would say it's probably the last guy we had that was anything like this was Trey Lance. and with him, I thought that it was a lot of unfair expectations. Most of it because I think the 49ers fans were really, really eager to get rid of Jimmy Garoppolo and were so excited about the idea of a talented quarterback being able to supplant him. So there was a lot of pressure, I think, from the fan base around him.

44:13To me, I think that this is probably going to be a lot of internal pressure for Anthony Richardson. And I don't mean like Colts organization. I think that for Anthony Richardson specifically, given what all the noise has been throughout his career in the NFL, I think it's going to be difficult for a guy like that making throws and not trying to overcorrect anything that goes wrong. If you leave a ball short, I want to see if he leaves a ball short, are you going to sail the next pass because you're so concerned about where the ball is placed, right? Like if you miss a guy who's open cross in the middle of the field on the third down on the next series out, are you going to force the ball into tight coverage because you don't want your head coach bugging you about not looking at the middle of the field, right?

44:53Like, I just want to see kind of what his self-awareness level is at, how he handles the flow of the game. I would say based on what I've seen in terms of like these very small clips and then really what some of the reporting has been, it's been very complimentary in terms of, okay, he's got better footwork. It seems like he's got a little bit better control of the ball. It seems like it's a little bit more consistent coming out of his hands. You're not getting as many wild misses. But I think that Colts coverage has also been pretty honest. Like Anthony Richardson still kind of is what he is at this point.

45:23You're going to have some throws that get sale. You're going to have some throws that are three, four yards outside of a receiver's catch radius. And that's still part of the experience. It's really just going to be like, can we turn the knob a little bit closer to what the expected baseline is for a starter in the NFL? If we get nothing else but that, I'm happy. But unfortunately the first throw that he misses over the top of a wide receiver's head, it's going to be everywhere on social media. the first time he does spin out of a sack, turns around and flings the ball deep down the middle of the field, and there's a guy in the post waiting for an interception, that's going to be somehow a reflection on his entire offseason's worth of work.

46:02I wish it wasn't that way, and I'm hoping that we get the best version of him going forward, but it's going to be hard not to evaluate him more harshly than we would evaluate really any other starting quarterback or potential starting quarterback going into a season.

46:16Steven Ruiz:Nobody's excited to watch Dimes play? Danny Dimes? It's been a while since we've seen him. For a second. Not for a second. No, no.

46:25Diante Lee:Yeah, I didn't have anything there. You want to talk about a check down. You don't have to worry about that when he's in the game. Which is wild because back in the day the original Daniel Jones wasn't that way. But yeah, I mean he has he suffered a lot of injuries and is not the same guy he was.

46:39Steven Ruiz:You're yearning for the old Daniel Jones? My version of Daniel Jones.

46:43Diante Lee:Yeah, your version. There was something there. It was almost like Jameis a little bit where you're like man, he will fire these throws in. He's talented and anything can happen. And then they're using him in the run game. I mean, there were little morsels, little moments in there. But I think that version's gone. You know, he did suffer serious injuries where now he just looks like a total shell of himself. But I like the moments. That sounds like the best grunge band and the Colts quarterback room right now. By the way, this guy's making$14.5 million this year. Crazy. Well, that's what I was thinking too when Deontay was talking about, you know, he misses a throw.

47:19Diante Lee:Does that get in his head? Like, I wouldn't really trust the organization I play for if I would be like a head case if I made a mistake. That's what I'm saying. It doesn't feel like an environment. Now they can tell him, hey, it's okay. But based on his experience there so far, it doesn't feel like it's okay to make a mistake and move on. I don't think they've created a culture for him or an environment for him. And again, I'm not absolving him of blame and, you know, whatever. Like he's got to play better, but it doesn't feel like an environment where you're just like, oh, everyone's behind me.

47:52Diante Lee:You know, I can put that throw behind me, move on next play. Let's go. Maybe I'll be wrong. But based on what we've seen, where the organization has been all over the place to the point where they're paying Daniel Jones,$14 million to light a fire under you. I'd be like, shoot, I missed that throw. My career here might be over.

48:10Steven Ruiz:You got to be more confident when you, when you sail the throw and then you get to watch Daniel Jones do the same exact thing right after you. Because he's the most expensive emotional support animal that we have.

48:23Diante Lee:Oh, that's true. He could tell himself, hey, next week, Daniel Jones is going to play the first quarter and a half, and that might boost his confidence a little bit. All right. I've gotten to all my preseason storylines, Ruiz. You got any extras here that we haven't hit on?

48:37Steven Ruiz:Yeah, I got a couple. Cam Ward, just the most anonymous first overall pick ever. I don't even know how he's doing in camp. I don't even know if the Titans are holding training camp. I haven't seen any reports. I saw him call the offense mid a couple weeks ago, but that's been the highlight of camp. I just want to see the dude play because he's fun to watch. Travis Hunter is an easy one, just how he gets deployed. I don't know if Aaron Rodgers is playing in that game, Pittsburgh at Jacksonville, but I do think even if Aaron Rodgers isn't out there, we're going to see the bones of the offense and how that's going to look.

49:07Steven Ruiz:And then one more, just the Packers wide receiver unit and how that kind of gets deployed and how they align. and they have a lot of heads in that room and they got to sort things out. So that will give us our first clue as to what that passing game is going to look like.

49:19Diante Lee:Yeah, but I feel like I'm so with you on Cam Ward. I mean, I don't remember this where I just, it's almost like they're an anonymous NFL team, the Titans, where it's just, I don't know what's happening. And Cam Ward is a very fun player. So we know whether he'll be good right away or not. He is an entertaining player, but yeah, I'm with you. I think I saw that report And then I saw, I think Brian Callahan was fired up about something. I can't remember. Was he making, you know, take laps or he was doing, he was upset with something at practice. He always is. Yeah. Which, which I'm like, oh man, I'm going to have to get on this guy like two weeks into the NFL season again, aren't I?

49:58Diante Lee:So I'm with you on Cam Ward there. That's a good one. Deontay, what about you? Any other, any other preseason storylines you have an eye on? Cam Ward was on my list. I would say the next thing for me would just be watching what Chris Kisirik can do with the 49ers defensive line. I think that the preseason is going to be pretty important for trying to sort out what, if anything, is going to be salvageable about the 49ers season. Like, I felt like all offseason, I was kind of trying to tee myself up. I was kind of like jazzing myself up about like, oh, man, let's not forget about this team that has Kyle Shanahan and Robert Salick all in the defense.

50:31And you still got Brock Purdy. And, you know, maybe when they're healthy, everything's going to be OK. and now Juwan Jennings is hurt, we still don't really have a clear idea of what Brandon Ayuk is going to be whenever it is that he comes back. And because they've been dealing with these injuries and because they have this really young defense, it's entirely possible that the woes of last season are there for them to start the year. So I want to see if that young defensive line has anything to say about that. If they have a big showing against the Sean Payton Broncos team, which I would expect to be really well designed to thrive in the preseason because it's a lot of continuity.

51:06They haven't had a lot of roster turnover. That offense is now being built, I think even more so to fit the pieces that they have around Bo Nix. I'm really interested to see whether or not those young guys kind of wreck shop against the Quinn Miners and the Mike McGlinchees of the world. And if we see that, then maybe I can be in on the 49ers being a frisky team in the NFC.

51:27Diante Lee:Yeah, Broncos have been a very buzzy summer team, I feel like, so far with people. Can they make the leap? Bo Nix, do they have one of the best defenses? Hipster pick for this year, for sure. Yeah, I actually, I'm wondering if it's, yeah, I don't know if it's hipster or mainstream, you know, because Sean Payton has been in the media and I feel like he has reasons for sort of spinning stuff a certain way. I don't know if he loves his team, if he wants them to believe in them, you know, he wants them to believe it or what, but I do feel like the Broncos have been in the coverage quite a bit here.

52:00Diante Lee:And with the Niners, I'm with you. I feel like if Mikel Williams can have like a 75 % Jared Burst type season, it kind of just makes me think about them differently, which is weird to say about a rookie defensive lineman. But I know the reports out of him so far seem pretty encouraging out there in camp. Now, he's a young player, and you never know until the games start with some of those pass rushers. But I'm with you. They need to work the magic that they've been known for with their defensive line because just from a talent perspective, I don't think they have the guys that they've had in recent years.

52:36Diante Lee:So can some of those young guys step up? Can the defense be good enough? And can the offense be better than it was last year? So there you go. Ruiz, any clues?

52:46Steven Ruiz:I wanted to point out one more game. We got the Bears. I just want to see what the Bears offense looks like because everything I hear out of camp is like they're the most disorganized unit of all time and Ben Johnson is swearing every other snap. So I want to see that. But how do you guys feel about the Sunday 1 p.m. preseason game? Does that work for you guys or no? Outrageous. I will probably never touch my television, if I'm being tired, to be honest with you. That is the YouTube clip invitational for me.

53:16Diante Lee:I really feel like it should be weekday evenings. I think fans are ready for that. All right. I might not watch the whole thing, but hey, this is cool. There's not a lot of sports on right now. I'll watch my favorite team in the preseason. But now when you're asking them on a summer Saturday or Sunday, like I think next week, the Eagles play Saturday at one o 'clock to take two, three hours out of their day to watch. Now maybe some fans listen to this are like - You want me to orient my weekend around preseason ball? Are you crazy? Well, listen, we're a little jaded probably. There are probably listeners who are like, what are you guys talking about?

53:52Diante Lee:I live for this. I've been waiting for football all year. and I will absolutely plan stuff around that. So I understand that too. Maybe we look at it more from a different perspective here. But yes, I prefer the weekday evening game I think is perfect for preseason. So Roger, if you're listening, I know you got a lot on your plate, but go ahead and make that fix for next year. All right. That's what we're watching in the preseason. Now we will watch the preseason and then we'll talk about what we watched, hopefully avoiding serious injuries. That's always the big thing in the preseason as well.

54:27Diante Lee:We don't want to be talking about that in the weeks ahead. So we'll see who's out there, who's not out there, who flashes, who surprises, what we learn, all those things in the weeks ahead. Thank you to Steven Ruiz, Deontay Lee, thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing, and Kiera Givens on social. I'm Shiel Kapadia. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL Show.

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