NFL 2023 Preseason Thread

I give up.

WTF? Lol, DeTaint McTainterson won’t work either.

Just in case you didn’t catch it, that was an article from The Onion.

A really funny one, but satire.

It’s close enough to the truth that it’s actually plausible.

It cracked me up IRL when smithsb posted it, and I commented on it to my wife.

Oh man, lol. I saw the headline and thought “That’s so ridiculous it’s probably real” without verifying, something I so rarely do, so mea culpa there, and funnier now to me, lol.

The Ravens extend the most pointless winning streak in sports with their 24th consecutive preseason victory. They have not lost a preseason game since 2015.

Rumor has it that RB Ezekiel Elliott is signing a one-year deal with the New England Patriots.

That makes sense, as early in this thread it was mentioned that he was meeting with the Patriots.

RIP the Rhamondre hype train. Crowded RB room in NE.

Another free agent running back appears to be finding a home: Adam Schefter is reporting that Dalvin Cook is signing a one-year deal with the Jets.

So interesting. Six years playing on a team that’s a division rival with the Packers, and now he’s playing with the same QB he played against all that time.

I haven’t watched enough of the Vikings recently to know, but why did the Vikes let him go? He had over 1100 yards rushing last season and almost 300 yards receiving. He should help the Jets, IMO.

Cook, who turns 28 in August, was set to take up $14.1 million in cap space for 2023 and was due to earn $11 million if he spent the season with the Vikings. Those are big numbers for an aging running back who surpassed 1,500 touches in his career last season.

I believe the Vikings got what they needed out of him, and felt he was unlikely to be worth the money he would cost going forward.

He might have a revenge season in New York now.

Age and mileage; it’s the same reason why Ezekiel Elliott and Leonard Fournette remained unsigned. Running backs are now seen as being (a) fairly interchangeable, and (b) having a relatively short shelf life.

Cook is 28, and has nearly 1300 career NFL carries. He was unlikely to have been willing to re-sign with the Vikings on a one-year deal, and the Vikings were unlikely to want to sign him to a high-value multi-year contract, with it being likely that Cook would not be able to continue to be productive through the run of such a contract.

I don’t like what that signing says about the health of Breece Hall.

Alex Collins, who I remember fondly as a Seahawk, reportedly passed away at the age of 28.

I’m not seeing anything outside of Twitter, but since both Seattle and Baltimore have sent condolences it seems legitimate.

I’ll never forget his Irish dancing.

ESPN is now reporting it. Apparently, he was in a motorcycle accident. He hit the passenger’s side rear end of an SUV, and flew through the window into their vehicle, where he came to rest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Colts have named rookie QB Anthony Richardson as their starter. Richardson was the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft, and had been competing with Gardner Minshew for the starting role.

This’ll be the eight consecutive season in which the Colts have started the season with a different starting quarterback.

That doesn’t strike me as smartest play. Did Minshew stink up the joint or something? I would have at least had Minshew start the season with the unspoken plan to have the rookie take over after the bye. Unless by some miracle Minshew was doing well.

I’m not sure about how they were doing in training camp workouts, but here are their stats from the Week 1 preseason game:

  • Richardson 7/12, 67 yards, 0 TD, 1 interception
  • Minshew 6/6, 72 yards, 0 TD, 0 interceptions

For what it’s worth, after that game, Colts Wire had named Minshew their “player of the game”.

My suspicion is that the Colts had planned, all along, to have Richardson as their Week 1 starter, barring any complete meltdowns during training camp, and wanted Minshew there as (a) an experienced backup, and (b) a guy with a reputation as a hard worker, and a team player, to help Richardson.

Not a surprise to me. Minshew has been an NFL QB for 4 years, and has been a starter in 24 games. Richardson has never taken a snap in any kind of NFL game. So there should definitely be a discrepancy.

Minshew is an okay QB looking at his stats. His career passer rating is 93.1, which is about mid range in the NFL. (It was a pathetic 83.4 last year, putting him much closer to the bottom, but he only played 2 games so that’s a pretty small sample.) His completion percentage is 62.8%, which is pretty low, so he’s not a particularly accurate passer. His TD/Int ratio is 2.93 (he gets almost 3 TDs per interception) which isn’t bad. He’s a decent backup and mediocre starter.

Richardson is an exciting prospect. He’s insanely athletic, and if properly developed could be a superstar. Or he could be a bust if he isn’t developed properly.

I would definitely not start him right away because he needs a lot of polish. And Minshew is okay to put out there as a starter.

But if the Colts have faith in Richarson, I’m sure it will work out great. They’d never ruin a talented quarterback before he has a chance to shine, would they?