NFL Preseason Week 3 Takeaways: Josh Jacobs Fallout, Aaron Donald Returns + Stock Watch (Ep. 2165)

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. This episode sponsored by She's Birdie. You lock the hotel room door, then check it again, and maybe one more time, because even the nicest room can feel unfamiliar at night. That's why She's Birdie created BirdieBox. With She's Birdie, you can bring peace of mind with you. BirdieBox is a portable travel door alarm for hotels, dorms, Airbnbs, and anywhere you stay away from home. Just attach it to the door frame, switch it on, and if someone opens the door, BirdieBox blasts a loud siren and flashing alarm to alert you and everyone nearby. Because the best part of travel isn't worrying. It's sleeping soundly. BirdieBox from She's Birdie. Locking in peace of mind wherever you stay. For safer, more confident travel, visit She'sBirdie.com. That's S-H-E-S-B-I-R-D-I-E.com. It's the tailgate. I'm Chris Welsh. That's Pat Fitzmaurice, Scott Bogman in the house. And today, we are breaking down the final bit of the preseason. Preseason behind us. Get the hell out of here. We don't want you anymore. But we are going to be taking a look at, you know, the big changes we're pulling out. At least one big change out of the preseason. We are going to be looking at a couple players that did stock rise up. Off of week three of the preseason. How that carries into the season. And really, the biggest piece is a ton of the crazy stuff that has gone on about the last four or five days in the NFL. That's setting us all the big latest news. That's what we got. So sit back, rock with us. Talking tailgate here. Mr. Pat Fitzmaurice. The Green Bay Packers have some craziness going down with them. We're going to just jump right into it here. The biggest news that dominated the weekend. And really, the week leading up. Was this little progressive storyline of Josh Jacobs. Josh Jacobs, of course. We knew that there was this, you know, this issue going on that was kind of looming. And what was that going to have as far as suspension? Or would it be pushed to next year? Then some podcasts started to relay some information. Then we find out there's a video. And then finally, slapped with the exempt list. And that is kind of the death blow of seeing Josh Jacobs this season. We have absolutely no idea. If he's going to play. Rumors of full season. Rumors of him staying on the exempt list. Maybe until the court date is settled in here. So talk to us about your initial reactions. And do you think we're going to see Josh Jacobs this year? That's so hard to tell. There's such a varied history with the exempt list. I mean, we saw Adrian Peterson miss almost a whole season. I think he was on the exempt list for 15 games. We've seen. I forgot about that. Yeah. And the same year. Greg. Hardy was another case. And I believe that was domestic violence related to. And he was on the commissioner exempt list and basically missed the season. So that was 12 years ago. And then we've seen cases where guys were just on it for days. Tayshaun Gibson was on it for four days related to a PED thing. Jabril Peppers was on for a month and a half. Michael Hall Jr. Just over a month. So really hard to tell. I don't know if it's. The video is just so damning that that's. If the video is super damning, I think he probably misses the whole season. But is this a case of the NFL just maybe buying themselves more time to make a decision? Really hard to tell. But interesting to maybe think about the ramifications for the Packers. Obviously, Marshawn Lloyd goes from this guy who can't stay healthy to now an integral part of the Green Bay offense. They trade for Caleb Johnson. From Scott Bogman's Pittsburgh Steelers, who couldn't get out of the doghouse after failing to field that kickoff against Seattle in week two of 2025, leading to a touchdown for the Seahawks. So they've got him. They've got Chris Brooks. They've got Pierre Strong. And maybe they just throw a whole lot more this year after being, I think, the last two years, 31st and 22nd in pass rate over expected. Maybe they just turn Jordan Love loose this year. Yeah, there's a lot of webs. You like what this ultimately is going to be spun up for. One of the notes that came out, at least as we're recording this, is that the GM of the Packers said they have not seen the video yet, which might also be telling potentially about some of their reactions around Josh Jacobs. And, you know, we heard early on, like coaching being like, oh, yeah, we expect Jacobs here. And it's hard to tell without us seeing the video. Obviously, I think the NFL has seen that video for to throw him on the exempt list. But Boggs, it's a really it's it's an unknown. It's an unknown situation. Like, how do we have how do we navigate this? You know, Packer fans, I think that is probably the the adjustment that's going to happen. They're going to lean on Brooks and Marshawn Lloyd to whatever degree of success they're going to find. But ultimately, what that might end up doing is having this be a really pass heavy team. Do you think they are going to be successful, though, trying to deviate? Because this feels like the type of team that's going to continue to not try to let their game plan be changed because of Jacobs being gone. But if they. Find a lack of success with Lloyd and Brooks, and then they're altered into having to be more of a pass heavy team. What do you think that's going to do to the Packers for this coming season? Yeah, I think obviously it hampers the offense, right? We know Josh Jacobs is a lot more reliable back there in the backfield. So to not have him is going to hurt a lot. I do think they're going to pass way more like Fitzy said. I think you just kind of have to because you don't have Jacobs back there. You have Marshawn Lloyd, a guy that is not lasted in the NFL. Maybe that stuff. It's behind him. Obviously went to the injury camp or whatever it was in the offseason. And then you have just a lack of experience behind those guys. I mean, Pierre Strong has been in the NFL for a long time. Chris Brooks has been with the Packers. What? Three seasons, something like that. Fitzy and Caleb Johnson just came over this week. So I think we are going to see a lot more Jordan love. But you know what? Let's go ahead and send Fitzy there on Sunday to Lambeau to see what's going on. Yeah. Fitzy, why don't you go ahead and check that out at Lambeau? Yeah. What's the weather like in Lambeau right now? It's not snowy yet, is it? Not yet. In fact, it's really humid, but it should be nice for that Notre Dame-Wisconsin game that I will be attending on Sunday night in Lambeau. Yeah. Oh, there you go. No, you know, you're going to be looking at Josh Jacobs, right? You're going to be looking into that, not drinking beers and watching the football. And by the way, this whole thing about Brian Gutekunst saying that he does not have the video of this thing. It's his own player's home surveillance video. He could get that if he wanted to, or he could at least ask. Ask Josh Jacobs to provide him with that. So I feel like that's kind of a dodge. Like either he doesn't want to know what's on the video or it actually. It smells a little bit like, like you got it, but no, we're not going to have it until everybody in the public sees it because of how the reactions are. Welsh said it perfectly when you said, you know, they may be just delaying until they see the video. I think that's what the NFL is doing. I don't know if the NFL has that footage yet, but you can, you can watch my face change live from last Friday at Q&A. Welsh was talking about it with. The other day where I didn't like about an hour before I got on, they announced that there was video of this and I was on with Alfredo doing a Q&A and he was talking about it. You can watch my whole demeanor change. Well, cause Bob, cause Bob, he's talking about it and I was telling him it was like, it was like from interstellar and I was Matthew McConaughey just screaming. I was like, Bogman, no, because Bogman's sitting there being like, well, you know, my, my, uh, my opinion will change if they have video of this. And I'm like, thanks. There's video. There is video. And then Alfredo broke it to bogs. It was like, yeah, it's rough. Uh, let me, let me ask this one then. Pat, do you think Marshawn Lloyd can be the Jonathan Brooks Prince that was promised? Like everything that we're putting on a guy like Jonathan, by the way, Jonathan Brooks came up a little bit lame in practice today. It might not be anything, but like everything that we've looked at with Jonathan Brooks this season, I mean, it's a little bit different, I guess, cause we've seen a couple snaps of Marshawn Lloyd. But there's a lot of big hyper focus on like what he is and there's still Chuba there. Do you think Marshawn Lloyd is talented enough to, I'm using Jonathan Brooks as an example as I guess, both like talented guys that have been hurt, but like, can he Fitzy fill the role of what Josh Jacobs is? Or is this a little bit what I've led to before? If we are without Josh Jacobs, this team struggles to find an identity in the run game and then they become more pass heavy. Or are we not giving enough credit to the talent? Cause Marshawn Lloyd in the fantasy space has moved up, but he's still not even cracking like a top 24 back in most people's minds. So is he talented enough? I'm cautiously optimistic that he is. I know he was Daniel Jeremiah's favorite running back in the class when he entered the draft. I know our guy Debro loved him and the buzz was really strong for him in training camp this year and they nicknamed him the Yeet Cannon and just said he was bringing all sorts of pizzazz to the position. And yeah, and apparently with the injury thing, he kind of. They did the same thing Christian Watson did a few years ago, had a bunch of like studies done on him and they found out it was the same sort of like muscle imbalance that Christian Watson had and they adjusted his training based on that. I hate having to learn about muscle imbalance, by the way. Yeah, I know. I know. NFL really does give you a little pseudo like medical degree. Like if you're here enough, you're going to learn about all the injuries and you could just be like, oh, is that the metacarpal? You know, it's like. - We really do start, I mean, I guess I don't really, but we do at least. - And why is it only green bay packers collecting imbalanced athletes in the draft too but um yeah i mean i'm cautiously optimistic about him but we know chris brooks is a solid professional running back who can do the third down stuff and can be used a little bit on early downs too as they have in the past and pierre strong um like i've seen one thing there's a an outlet called cheesehead tv for packers fans and they are suggesting that pierre strong is probably the backup in week one and not caleb johnson i like i think when you say that it's like tim robinson's corncob tv and it's just green bay packers falling through caskets or something like that you like corncob green head cheesehead tv um boggs we the thing we kind of glossed over was caleb johnson from your pittsburgh steelers was traded to green bay everyone was kind of writing on the wall as well i mean obviously like he didn't have a placeholder for that team and maybe his talents in question but for green bay to go acquire another running back do you think this is just fresh body new home new place or do you think caleb johnson actually can be a force because he's probably going to get some opportunity in some capacity this year so like what level of like excitement does this trade actually have for green bay packer fans i mean i think it should have a little bit of excitement right caleb johnson was completely underutilized by pittsburgh last season after what exactly what fitz said he uh screwed up a kickoff against seattle the seahawks ended up beating the steelers because of that and uh he never got out of touch with green bay packers so i think it's going to be a little bit of a and then tomlin retired and here comes mike mccarthy with you know his own group of backs that he likes and they drafted eli heidenreich lou nichols outplayed caleb johnson in the preseason so and lou nichols didn't even make the roster either so i do think that caleb johnson wasn't really given a fair shake in his first season and a half in pittsburgh here but i do think that he has a great opportunity marshawn lloyd has been injured a lot you know chris brooks has never taken a full workload neither is pierre strong so i do think there will be opportunity at some point for caleb johnson here but he has to earn it because this is a teetering point in his career when you get traded like this it's either going to be you make it with this next team or you're probably going to get kicked around and be a backup for a while so uh i do think he needs to make the best of this uh opportunity that he has in front of him and he can really shine if he can really shine takes his chance and runs with it because i do think that in terms of ceiling on the roster that isn't jacobs right now i think caleb johnson is you're running back with the highest ceiling on the packers currently okay so final thing uh true or false fitzy josh jacobs plays it down in the nfl this year i know we don't obviously fully know but guesstimation on your part i'll say true because it would have to be like a ray rice level terrible video for i think the nfl to come down on him any harder than the normal six game suspension for domestic violence so i mean it would have to be just horrible and if it was horrible why is the why is he only getting charged with two misdemeanors instead of a felony true or false we see josh jacobs this year i i think uh fitzy has the right of it i do i think it might be eight games you know half the season just like james pierre scott um i think it's probably going to be half the season maybe more maybe 10 games maybe he peels it down to eight or something like that uh but i i do think he ends up playing uh like you said unless this video is way worse than we thought oh always the most fun thing to talk about before the nfl season uh when these type of things go down don't love it don't love it at all uh the other big piece of news this was like elephant in the room level things that like we all knew rams knew aaron donald knew we knew they just didn't write pen to paper but it officially happened aaron donald is coming out of retirement and he agreed to a one-year 20 million dollar deal with incentives did the rams become the dodgers by the way and that they can just they have funny money here a total value of 30 million potential dollars attached to aaron donald uh so much around it they become obviously like the best defensive unit the best defensive line i saw this really interesting narrative and i feel like it's still been a little bit wishy-washy in it but in the the betting market aaron donald got thrown into uh comeback player of the year but apparently he's not eligible i don't if you know about this fitzy like i from nfl rules it's saying that he's actually not eligible for coming out of retirement to do comeback player of the year yet we've seen him pop up in some books or something like that so that would be kind of a dead bet uh so i'm i don't know if do you know anything about that i do not i do not that that's i think that is the one future i would never bet comeback player of the year and andrew erickson is touting a travis hunter bet for comeback player of the year award oh i mean he got hurt so he's eligible for it but i believe the rule is is uh guys coming back from retirement are not eligible yeah that's what i said okay that's yeah yeah i think that is just the official rule so uh but if you can slap plus 700 on it stick in the comments and i'll see you in the next video on your website mike gets i guess i'm not sure but uh this this unit looks absolutely insane it is a unit of unit with garrett and donald there it it has affected um obviously odd super bowl odds in here so fitzy any thoughts on aaron donald coming out of retirement and what this does for this defense is there anything overplayed with it and do you think this i don't know shores up just one more extra piece that the rams now become you know just a hard hardcore favorite across the nfl as a super bowl contender i think that's my takeaway welsh that they are the hardcore favorites now like far and away um and maybe they shouldn't be over the the team from their own division that beat them and uh has the the super bowl title so but boy i mean you take what was already a really good team and add miles garrett and add aaron donald and oh by the way like it happened before those two things so we forget that they poached the chiefs starting cornerbacks uh with trent mcduffie and jalen watson like this defense is loaded for bear and to go with the offensive genius of sean mcveigh and all the talent on that side of the ball boy are the rams scary this year yeah i've been screaming about in the fantasy streets when we talk about matthew stafford like i still can't understand matthew stafford is like now like the 16th quarterback and nothing's changed like he's older and his back is probably a little bit more dicey but nothing's changed he's like he's like he's like changed and he was so efficient they have that offense but the scariest part about the defensive front now boggs is that aaron donald creates the lack of ability for more double teams on garrett or you're just gonna have offensive lines what double team donald double team garrett and they're gonna have to leave out two more tight ends to cover the rest of the defensive line like if they're running four-man fronts out there donald makes garrett even more scary because of the attention he's going to garner and he's going to have to leave out two more tight ends to cover the unless he's lost a step do you kind of do you buy what i'm selling there oh yeah yeah and have you ever heard uh jason kelsey talk about who the hardest defender it was for him to play against it was puna ford puna ford the the nose tackle because he's short and squatty and got leverage underneath kelsey and that was his specialty was uh i get you know i get the leverage and they can't come after me well puna ford is here in the middle clogging everything up right and for uh miles garrett and aaron donald and by the way byron young is really really good we would be talking about byron young if he wasn't on this line with miles garrett and um uh aaron donald here and by the way bobby wagner still a free agent they've got five million dollars in cap space apparently so they can go add bobby wagner and put him in the middle of the inside linebacker if they want to he can go ring chasing if they want and like fitzy said they have to go to the added the two corners uh for kansas city that made that defense dangerous last year cam curl took a big step up um cam kitchens is going into his third season should take a nice step up as well so what's a better defensive line scary think about what's a better defensive line you guys can recall i mean are you gonna throw old like 70 steelers like the i i mean i think that's where you have to go right like in recent history it's been miles garrett and tj watt have been really good uh the your your two best defensive linemen will anderson's and the texans really have a scary line too fitzy can you this good i mean i went back to like old steel like is there a defensive line you can recall in recent history uh dominating defensive tackle aaron donald miles garrett young i mean is there a better defensive line you can think of in the last 20 30 years without having to go deeper yeah i mean um i'm trying to think of the 2000 ravens that was probably the best if not you know the 85 bears 2000 ravens were probably the second defense of my lifetime best since you know the turn of the millennium but um man i just like that was also the secondary being so good having ed reed back there having uh ray lewis at linebacker so it wasn't necessarily like great defensive line too but not not like this man i just thought i was like 85 41 years ago the 85 bears are i mean it just i'm a couple years older only a couple years older than that and i'm like oh 30 years and i was like oh yeah good call fitzy the bear 85 that's 41 years ago that that was time is a depressing circle bubble i mean we haven't seen aaron donald play in a couple seasons maybe he's lost a step yeah that's what i was saying like there's always the chance that you know maybe there's a degradation of of skills and maybe you know losing that time maybe it's 90 of the workload but on paper you look at that defensive line you look at what they've built in the secondary if they were to go get a guy like bobby wagner it's like what's the hole outside of a bunch of aging dudes that might have back problems like where's the where's the hole i mean then 49ers got injury problems they're not that old you know i mean substation like if stafford had a season-ending injury that would be the biggest thing because behind him it's just stetson bennett and ty simpson but they would probably go trade for joe flacco or somebody you know what i mean uh if that happened because the window was kicked wide open here with this squad so crazy um you know backup quarterback is probably the only issue they have and they spent it for first round pick on it this year all right a couple other pieces of news and notes we were letting it uh cook a little bit on the news and notes at the front because those are some really big pieces going into this season we did get a little bit more clarity in the seahawks backfield speaking of that seahawks team with zach charbonnet going on the pup there were quite a few we had all the you know like these guys are waves picked up players are put on the pup i hated to see tank dell but you know the one i think that means the most is for is for anybody is jajarian price because zach charbonnet goes on the the pup he's out at least four games there's also reports about halani getting a decent amount of run here so fitzy how are you breaking down that situation quickly uh are you worried about charbonnet's full season look is this full go for jadarian price or is halani really going to get a little bit more run than anybody was expecting i think pup makes sense there were reports that he might be ready for week one and wouldn't have to go on pup that seemed pretty real unrealistic for charbonnet considering that he had the surgery i want to say in like mid-february so maybe he's ready to go soon after pup and it's going to be fascinating to see whether jadarian price can just take that job and and literally run with it in the early weeks of the season and turn charbonnet into a backup or is price disappointing and maybe charbonnet comes back as sort of at least the the 1a if not the lead guy once he's ramped up and you know gets a couple of weeks where i'm sure they limit his snaps but maybe maybe by thanksgiving or sooner he's he's going to be able to get a little bit of a run in the early weeks of the season and i'm he's back to being the main guy like price is just fascinating for me because he's such a you know black box prospect you just don't know what you're going to find uh once you let him roll because he was jeremiah loves backup in college um you know he was drafted in the first round but kind of pushed up by a you know running back needy team that's always been aggressive in drafting running backs with john schneider as gm so i'm really interested to see how it's going to play out this episode sponsored by she's birdie you lock the hotel room door then check it again and maybe one more time because even the nicest room can feel unfamiliar at night that's why she's birdie created birdie box with she's birdie you can bring peace of mind with you birdie box is a portable travel door alarm for hotels dorms airbnbs and anywhere you stay away from home just attach it to the door frame switch it on and if someone opens the door birdie box blasts a loud siren and flashing alarm to alert you and 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or wherever you get your podcasts it's funny i think of like uh the peter griffin's thing where they're like would you like ken walker or would you like this mystery box of jadarian price and he's like mystery box it could be anything even ken walker it could be even ken walker because it's like i think jadarian price is i've kind of always thought this i mean i think your dream would have been boggs like 20 plus touches but like the halani news doesn't do anything to me because it's like yeah i bet they do use him on some early downs and they want price to come in four or five plays in because he's built to be explosive and if it's like halani gets 10 touches price gets somewhere between you you want more than 18 but 12 to 18 so like that doesn't seem like a crazy output where people should be freaking out or anything like that but do you think that's how it's going to play out and jadarian price can kind of take that role or i know you've been kind of negative about even able to like come back early in the season yeah i mean this this injury just happened so late in the playoffs and then he waited until february to get the surgery for it so it just has always seemed like our goal should be thanksgiving not before that you know um maybe with the way guys are progressing faster i mean we see chris bell coming back from eight months from an acl maybe it's closer to halloween than it is thanksgiving that he gets back but even then if that's his first week back then they're probably going to ease him in like fitzy said he's not really a thing until thanksgiving so um look he charbonnet is a great back and i'm really excited for his future specifically in dynasty i have him ranked higher than most because uh he's a free agent next week so i'm really excited for his future next year i was about to say you're excited when he's not a seahawk and yeah yeah i think someone's going to spend money and i think you spend a first round pick on jadarian price because you're probably letting charbonnet walk coming out off of this acl surgery unless he's really good down the stretch and in the playoffs if that's the case and you know you can resign him at that point but uh i do think that uh in this backfield yes maybe it's going to be an ugly mix to start but the way running back always works is whoever is running the best gets the ball and jadarian price is going to be running the ball better than anybody else on this roster this year so i do expect a lot of touches for price you just worry if like you know they use price maybe actually early in sets and they get inside the 20 and it goes to halani or even a bigger nightmare what they did last year yeah that's what i'm saying or even a bigger nightmare it's more for like the fantasy side it would be like emmanuel wilson coming in is the goal line back yeah and they use the other two backs right yeah like it's it's price on far downs halani inside the 20 and then inside the five it's emmanuel wilson and everyone's just like you know just like it's a nightmare but that's probably what they're gonna end up doing the final two pieces um outside of you know players being put on pup and whatever was between players not making and making the roster so in an in an inverse way these were two probably of the most surprising make the roster not make the roster odell beckham jr made the giants roster maybe i'm just more shocked about it than anybody and joe milton quarterback backup quarterback for the cowboys did not make the roster and bogman almost lost it yesterday when melton got cut i know fits is with me fits were you shocked when you saw that totally shocked the the idea that sam howell is a better gives you a better chance to win game how fitz also like what what did uh joe milton have to do like he had a great preseason i think he was like 29 for 43 for like 200 and some yards three touchdowns no interception he runs he's probably got the strongest arm of any quarterback yeah he's got a cannon dude they're like 80 yards dude like and they just feel like a jerry jones the comp for his arm strength isn't football it's jacob mizorowski like that so i i just but like he had shown signs of turning into a decent passer too i don't understand it and i would imagine that someone's gonna pick pick up joe milton wild well you're gonna be seeing odell beckham out there and see joe milton getting picked up on all the weird quarterback situations would joe milton be the best quarterback in cleveland right now i think he might be i mean that's that's why that's why like what welsh yesterday gave me a little crap about this because we're we're recording a show and i look at my phone like what he was like ready to interrupt me as i'm talking on a show and i was like he made it out like christian mccaffrey tore his acl like i was when he wouldn't when the words came out of his mouth what happened i was just in shock i was like listen this is the one but you're a dynasty guy you're a dynasty when your team is desperately searching for a quarterback and joe milton is better than everyone that isn't aaron rogers on your team you are shocked that somebody else lets him go now pittsburgh isn't going to pick him up because they already have four i don't think cleveland does it either but someone is going to pick up joe milton for sure your stealer should infinity gauntlet they should just pick up a fifth and by the way the cowboys gave up a fifth a fifth round pick in 2025 they did uh get a fifth round pick in 2025 they did get a fifth round pick in 2025 they did get a fifth round hit a seventh round pick that year back in the draft but you still give up a fifth which is not nothing developed joe milton for two years after trading for him and then just let him go okay i got i got a great question even keel uh offense i don't want to get like two different offensive sides so put them on a median team out there let's say the vikings who has a better career or better season if they are given the opportunity to start every game joe milton or j.j mccarthy fitzy milton i'm going okay you guys are both going milton over j.j mccarthy yeah look i think j.j mccarthy could be a good quarterback in the future but he needed to sit and develop for two to three years right they threw him in way too fast last season but joe milton has been sitting two or three years he's ready i feel like so uh i would plug him right in there can you imagine milton balls to jefferson and the weird thing is is like as good as milton balls to jefferson and the weird thing is is like as good as milton balls to jefferson is he's not one to rocket every throw like he'll actually use touch and layer some throws and and you know the the dump offs are thrown like he throws a catchable ball which j.j mccarthy does not how did the saints not immediately add him spencer rattler is your backup zach wilson's behind him the saints should be the first team out there snap it up joe milton i love the thought of joe milton over j.j mccarthy given a full season of success i am dying to hear in the okay you know what now comments below joe milton or j.j mccarthy 17 game season can we get madden up here can we simulate to see yeah you know what fitzy you got madden you you got friends that work over at madden you i don't have the new game you have it i want you to simulate put joe milton on the vikings and for a full season probably give it kyler yeah cut cut cut them and then do j.j mccarthy or someone here can do that if you want in the comments i gotta see what the simulated season looks like under the minnesota vikings with either one is quarterback let me know and then also joe milton or j.j mccarthy who's the better full season starter that'll get some uh that'll get some conversation riled up there we are going to be talking about uh what we learned out of the preseason one big takeaway from the preseason as a whole and we've got three more stock-up players before the season starts but it's giveaway time we've been talking all august about the ladanian tomlinson autograph jersey well it is the time for the actual giveaway and got another one right after so the winner is joe milton and j.j mccarthy who's the better full season starter that'll get winner of the ladanian tomlinson autograph jersey giveaway is sergio gara sergio gara please get in touch with our customer support agents at mailbag at fantasypros.com with your mailing address and a screenshot of your youtube account while logged in once we've confirmed it you're gonna get taken care of again congrats to sergio gara g-u-e-r-r-a hopefully i'm saying your last name correctly sergio you rock you win but if you others listening didn't win here's an opportunity for you to win our brand new giveaway a todd girley signed rams jersey this is awesome i still can't get over the that shot of the georgia running backs with sony michelle him and nick chubb and they're all like under 34 and they're all retired and what could have been with todd girley but what is is he is great and his autograph jersey could be yours here's what you got to do subscribe to the tailgate youtube channel do it right now drop a comment below we'll give you a couple reasons to comment you could just say you love the channel or whatever it is and that's it and you're going to be entered in we'll be announcing a winner right here on the channel so make sure you turn on notifications so you know when new videos are up and you can claim your prize just like sergio did with the lt jersey so congratulations to him and congratulations to you guys that are going to be taken home whoever it is that todd girley autographed jersey all right the preseason is over we've kind of week in and week out talked about some things we've learned on an individual basis what i want to do now is let's just do a big macro takeaway uh there's a lot of things that i'm there's been tons of action tons of action that hasn't mattered uh some that we are going to make it bigger than it probably is but i want to look from a macro perspective at a takeaway from each one of us to a specific team one thing that you think can carry over it could be maybe a specific player it could be the usage of a player it could be the usage from a team perspective but through three preseason games fitzy we will start with you give us a macro preseason as a takeaway that you're going to carry into the regular season i just uh thought it was interesting that in the final preseason game for the eagles this was uh all all starters sitting except for mckay lemon who had been sidelined by a hamstring injury for most of training camp in the preseason so they wanted him to get a little taste of action they played mckay lemon in their final game and you would think that mckay lemon would primarily be the slot guy but he played 15 snaps uh lined up outside for nine of them in the slot for six of them and you know he's kind of expected to be the primary slot guy and maybe he will be and and line up you know undoubtedly in the slot for a good percentage of regular season snaps but the outside usage uh kind of hints that davante smith is going to play a lot of slot snaps too and it kind of hints that things are going to be unpredictable and interchangeable in the sean manion offense in philly which probably bodes well for both davante smith and mckay lemon just gets me a little more excited about what the philly offense could be and i think we need that excitement after a year of kevin patillo calling the plays yeah i thought mckay lemon looked really interesting too because it seemed there felt like there's like a lot of like negativity floating around like very very early on in the preseason and then the usage kind of seems to be moving around what do you think about that as a whole an interchangeability with mckay lemon and davante smith and what he can end up being bogs yeah i mean i think it's a great point right and this is kind of uh you have hollywood brown thrown into this mix as well right so like all these guys that can kind of interchange where they're lining up i think is very smart for this offense obviously saquon is still going to be number one in the pecking order uh jalen hurts is still going to have a lot of those tush push first downs and touchdowns and everything but i like like fitzy said you just had to be less vanilla than what you were last season you got to change things up and i think you know losing a talent like aj brown is never it it never makes things better on you know as a whole but i do think that uh just getting that negativity out of the locker room whatever the deal was between him and jalen i think it's just going to help i think it's going to help aj brown to get out of there and i think it's going to help the eagles for him to be gone as well so i do think that uh you know the changes should benefit this offense specifically with new play have we all been sleeping on mckay lemon too i don't want to make it into like a big fantasy thing because like the cough ward uh last year over jeremiah smith which is kind of crazy but has anybody ever like has anybody hurt themselves more than having being the biggest weirdo like just start yeah like just speaking alone dropped him like 10 spots in people's perception and it felt very weird but like you know there's a lot of like it's carnell tate it's uh jordan tyson and then the whole time like mckay lemon might be one of the really sneaky rookies that's floating out there if that offense goes from vanilla to maybe a little vanilla chocolate swirl and you know that's a little bit more exciting because there's nothing more boring than vanilla but you get a little swirl action in here they start rolling maybe mckay lemon is the rookie we've been sleeping on here that's what you were kind of alluding to fitzy yeah and i do think he's the rookie we've been sleeping on and it was maybe the personality and then couple that with the hamstring injury early on so there's not that much enthusiasm about his season but um i've told a couple people you want to get excited about mckay lemon go watch the usc iowa game from last year and lemon was just jaw-dropping in that game like his hands people think about him as like this this catch and run guy this guy who gets open really easily his hands are amazing like suction cups so i'm i'm excited about him i think he's going to be a really good player i wouldn't be surprised if we look back on this draft and declare mckay lemon to have been the best wide receiver in the class just needs to not talk just don't talk and it'll be good it'll be absolutely going please get him a book on the sideline that's always worked for the eagles right yeah get lebron can do the godfather whatever godfather he likes to do um it wasn't that aj brown's thing too wasn't that his like yeah yeah there you go very good very good all right boggs macro uh macro preseason takeaway what team and what are you looking at you know it's funny uh when watching the browns this week and i've seen this clipped and played everywhere ryan fitzpatrick talking about how well you know deshaun watson is going to be the quarterback when he fails they're going to go to spend uh to shidura and then i also think that uh dylan gabriel is going to get to play as well and i can't remember who was in the booth with fitz fitzpatrick but they said uh so you just think watson's gonna fail he goes yeah i do uh i also think dylan gabriel will have a chance to play it was just so nonchalant it was so not what an announcer does he's right though right if you're the browns and you have this massive incoming crop of quarterbacks next season right and i think all the awards the post-draft awards all went to the browns for the way that they drafted in 2026 which i don't think has ever been said into a microphone before 2026 by the way they've not had very good draft classes throughout their existence even when they went away and came back you thought maybe that would increase things it didn't they were the the the the the We're going to see shador well when they don't win games with shador then do we go to talon green because we saw a little dylan gabriel last year i do think we go to talon green first and then dylan gabriel maybe his last but i think all four of these qbs are going to play i think it's gonna be a long year for the browns again i think they're going to be bottom feeders and they will add a great quarterback next year which i kind of don't like i i hope that they have the steelers you know uh just above 500 season to not get one of these quarterbacks but they're going to be picking high they're going to be a dante moore arch manning team for sure i had to look at this as soon as you said that i had to look and i typed in what what are the best browns draft class in history and then i did over the last 30 years because the response i got was the 1957 draft class which had jim brown and then gene hickerson who's a ninth round pick by the way when they had nine you know multiple rounds like that but then i did the last 30 years can you guys guess the year of 26 incorrect fitzy whatever year they took joe thomas um yeah i think that's it's also incorrect but i'll tell you i mean it's all subjective too by the way yeah sure i'll tell you i do not have a good guess okay okay 2018 where the one one was baker mayfield the one four was denzel ward and then the two uh the second round pick at 35 was nick chubb so those were their first three picks that i mean they've had some spots but to your point though like we can't anoint 2026 yet but we're like getting into that spot where what they've done across the board might look similar to one of those no this team could have used the last couple years baker mayfield really could have used baker mayfield the last few years would have been great and he beat pittsburgh in pittsburgh how do you let that guy walk you might be the he might be and i think i think this might be where he's gearing to he might be the steelers quarterback next year baker mayfield because didn't get his contract yeah i mean it works because tampa bay refused to do the deal with him and he wants to get revenge on cleveland so yeah they're driving last year by the way not not too bad with our carson schwessinger already a huge different difference judkins who's carrying the running game harold fannin who was an amazing third round all right mason graham mason graham was just okay like if he takes a step up yeah i mean well i mean i don't like this trend of the browns having good draft classes it's two years in a row i hate it you know and no pun intended to having deshaun watson and vince mcmahon um alike here but i was vince mcmahon mean when you were doing that i was like at each time you see that mean where i'm like oh oh every time you were saying one of those picks i was getting kind of excited about that um yeah i mean i love looking at draft classes the browns are a really interesting one so it's just funny to think like this is the big one but you know if you take last year's class and this year's class that could be the big change what what's the change they need though they need a they're you know it's a kryptonite it has been a kryptonite for years and years and years that they can build these teams get this structure and they just never have a good quarterback around or they make the wrong move and let a guy like baker go uh my big macro takeaway and this might this one might be the dumbest of all of them because some of you guys might already be there but i've had this slow burn over this preseason of just a realization with the chargers and maybe more specifically with what this offense is going to look like in that what was it like a couple years ago it was run heavy we thought it was going to be a good game but it's not it's not it was going to be a lot more run heavy with harbaugh coming in all of a sudden they're pass heavy lad kind of tapers back you know herbert's good looks fine everything like that there's something i was talking with bogman about this there's something now to me about mcdaniel in this offense and the oohing and aahing that herbert has done that i feel like there is an unleashing that's about to happen because you know mcdaniel's been held back by having tua tua is horrid i mean horrific i mean eight odd like under seven out throwing the ball deep when he did it just air balls and it was like well how did they what was the majority of of anything that was done on the dolphins team it was like 15 yard out at most and let guys like tyree kill and jaylen waddle have some yak but he has a team now with wide receivers that have step he has got a quarterback now that can make the big throws i think he's gonna sling the ever-living crap out of ball with this team and it's interesting i was looking at last year but 33rd in overall a dot at 8.2 i think that is going to completely change i think you might end up seeing him be like top three in deep balls thrown that a dot's gonna go up and i specifically think quentin johnson actually might be in for a bigger year than i had been giving him credit for i'm a little anti i'm not anti lad because i love lad but i'm i'm anti like lad being what he was two years ago where's a 29% target share i just don't think that's gonna happen but you've also got trey harris who could spread the field i don't think adson's gonna be very good but they got some tight ends that can do some business i just think that as fun as the run game is it's kind of this younger you know maybe there's a little bit of a um a rotation that happens a tiny bit with keaton mitchell all i feel like mcdaniel's has been talking about is the big playmakers that are going to do stuff probably catching the ball keaton mitchell's gonna probably do it at a screen passes quentin johnson yes uh the chargers heavy pass heavy i think it is going to be a to a bigger degree but i don't think it's going to be to a big playmaking degree this year and you kind of saw that right at the end of the preseason where they just let herbert slaying the you know in his few attempts out there slaying the ball what was it 60 yards deep to quentin johnson i think we are going to see a lot more of that than we have seen in the past and that whole a dot bottom 30 quarterbacks all of that is going to change this year and i think the charges are going to be high flying fitzy are you you we're kind of shaking maybe you're in agreement or maybe you have a retort no i'm excited about it i agree with you and just think that under mike mcdaniel to a tongue of led the nfl in passing yardage and he did it with a pasta arm and now you've got a guy who's got a rocket launcher attached to his shoulder and i'm not the first person to say this i think they touched on this in the athletic football podcast last week where they were saying like mcdaniel can just expand his playbook so much because he's got a lot of players that are going to be with the dolphins he had to do it with all these you know shallow crossers where he was just finding all this space for for tyreek hill and jaylen waddle and letting them do their magic after the catch justin herbert can access parts of the field that tua could not so more eloquently said than what i was attempting to allude to that's it right there it's the the the the tree the route tree the playbook opens and expands when you have a quarterback like this right so just think of the creativity mike mcdaniel is going to be able to use it's really exciting and and a multitude of really good receivers too it's not just like it's based on a one player it's like i mean you know we we look at lad is kind of like a slot merchant you know you can catch the ball fall down or whatever but like we've seen big plays lad can stretch the field trey harris can be able to stretch the field so boggs any thoughts on you know i think there might be a legitimate shot i'm saying i mean i'm not a big futures guy but there's a little part of me that wants to go put a like justin herbert leads the nfl in passing yards mvp maybe yeah i mean uh maybe take a look at those odds maybe i'm not a big futures guy but there's a little part of me that a little nice little sprinkle uh on top of the other future bets on top there i look um i think the beautiful thing about mcdaniel is that he doesn't really have a system per se he he leans into the strengths of the the players that he has which is why we sought to uh lead the nfl in passing yards because he knew exactly what to do all right let's get these shallow crossers into the hands of these amazing playmakers if i'm not going to have a quarterback for with a rocket arm i'm going to throw short passes and let these guys take it i'm going to work within the run game right and what we saw from what we've seen from herbert in most of his career you know everybody gives the bangles crap about not fixing their offensive line right the chargers have made attempts and it hasn't worked uh that's you know they went out and got slated and they got alt and they both got hurt last year that's why you saw short passes from herbert it wasn't it didn't have anything to do with the talent around him it was he had no ball and with the specifically the type of wide receivers that you have on this team that are guys that are going to stretch the field a little bit more nothing works right Hampton was hurt you don't have your grinder and you don't have your line to push the grinder through and you have these guys that run deep routes and they have to run shallower routes because we have no time to throw the damn ball it was a disaster last year I think it's going to be the opposite of that this year and this offense is going to be a lot of fun to watch so I'm absolutely with you all right stock watch time three players coming off of the final set of the preseason we were I mean obviously we threw some players in there as we're looking at kind of a macro perspective uh this is honing back in after the final preseason game our final stock watch from the preseason three players that we are keeping an eye on here Fitzy kick us off here stock watch who is up or down for you Ravens kicker Tyler Loop is down he missed field goals of 58 and 51 yards in the preseason uh finale for the Ravens uh missed three total kicks in the preseason and he's down in the preseason and he's down in the preseason and he's down in the preseason although they were all 49 yards or longer but um we know how the Ravens season ended last year right Boggs the uh miss by Tyler Loop bad 44 yard miss for him after the Ravens declined to try to get some extra yards with Derrick Henry just took a knee to set up that 44 yard try that missed badly and uh you know so by all accounts Loop had a good training camp but now with the uh with the Shanks in the preseason they have brought in uh a guy beloved to all 49ers fans right well it's Jake Moody former Michigan uh everybody loves him yeah so uh Moody didn't fare too well in San Francisco did a little better in a short stint with the commanders but now he's signed to I believe the practice squad so Loop's got Moody looking over his shoulder I can't think of anyone going into the regular season with more pressure on them than Tyler Loop was Moody the highest drafted special teams player in the preseason? in recent history who was the highest drafted like kicker or punter well Janikowski yeah oh yeah what first he was the I was about to say it was the first right yep yeah dude wasn't he like John Gruden told that story about him uh coming in hung over I was about to say wasn't he like ripping cigs and just like drunk and stuff he was like he was essentially the construction worker he was like from the replacements he was that guy from the replacements yes yeah yeah yeah 100% uh way fatter but yes yeah and uh Gruden had a story about him coming in hung to go kick a field goal and he's like he's hung over he's gonna miss it it's 52 yards he's like I wanted to miss it and he nails it nails it he comes over he's like great kick man you know uh the Gruden face and everything but yeah uh Tyler Loop uh you know sometimes it just takes one bad uh bad kick he needs Dr. Shearn from Ted Lasso I think all right Boggs you're stock up this is a player that you're pretty locked into but what did pre-season what did the third preseason games uh stock up this player for you? yeah it wasn't necessarily the third pre-season game but it's just Emmett Johnson Emmett Johnson has been incredible uh in the pre-season here has the second most missed tackles forced among backs with 20 carries or more which there are 37 of them he had the fourth highest elusive rating I think he was seventh in yards per contact uh yards after contact per attempt and he is the handcuff that you want if you are drafting Ken Walker in fantasy drafts and I do think he's you know he he has peaked at 255 touches and if you want to keep this guy around for the entire season in his career he has shown to break down if you give him too many touches I think Emmett Johnson is going to have a decent role here he had 297 touches in his last season at Nebraska Rashard Smith was the only guy behind him we knew Kareem Hunt didn't have a lot left in the gas tank he even had a uh tryout with the Lions and didn't make it which is is probably the end for Kareem Hunt but that's the guy that you would say hey you know you're going to have a lot of time to let's bring in this guy in case you know anything happens to Ken Walker and they didn't even do it I think uh I think Emmett Johnson is going to have a bigger year than people expect him to and I think he's already your number two back in KC yeah you've been big on Emmett Johnson final one for me here um it was very uh week three of the preseason relevant love this one yeah and I you know I kind of actually thought I might even be stealing this from Boggs I actually put this on the sheet but I love it because I Fitzy doesn't like this guy and I've been positive on on the Dynasty pod the entire offseason so you picking him I didn't even get mad I went I just did this yeah well I also drafted him in our we have the 16 team giant IDP league and I ended up getting him in like I don't know 15th round or 20th round or something crazy but Chris Bell with the Miami Dolphins injury uh designated pretty much all preseason gets in and really what stood out was the target share he ended up getting five targets in the first 10 minutes they uh I think it was the first playoff playoff playoff playoff playoff they had like a nice hitch route then it was post and maybe more importantly a couple people noted this he went between like x z slot I mean z can move around to that but like they were using him in multiple spots it is the most talentless wide receiver core maybe in the history of the NFL uh definitely in the last 10 years if you look at if you if you were to go into Miami and interview a hundred people to say tell me the two tell me two wide receivers on the Miami Dolphins I would bet you 95 of those 100 would not be able to even say one of them so because of that if we do believe that Malik Willis can be solid if we do believe that Devon A. Chan can still hold his value there's got to be something from somewhere else and Chris Bell might be that guy he looked good early on in this game they thought these injuries might keep him they used him in multiple spots ball control to him look I think there is going to be early targets and if he is out there Malik Willis is going to target him and for them to move him around if whether it's x and they want him to run big giant posts or they're going to move around to get the ball I think they want to get the ball in his hands and there's just not a lot of other guys out there so I think this is one of those few situations because so much time was missed he gets in and they immediately get him the ball I mean first quarter it's it's Chris Bell Chris Bell Chris Bell he has a real chance to be their number one which in reality is probably like you know statistically a low number two wide receiver on another team but I I think we got to stock up on Chris Bell no one is talking about him we haven't talked at least much about him maybe Dynasty Street you have but I think we got to start paying attention so Fitzy has anything changed in your hate for Chris Bell yeah I don't hate him uh one of the most physically gifted receivers in this draft but I think the the weakness he has in his game is route running and I worried that with his injury it was not great for a guy who needs to improve his route running to be missing training camp in the preseason great that he was able to come back so early and I think that bodes well for his chances of of making some sort of impact right away I'm I'm open-minded about him for sure I just I know when I was watching Louisville last year I was not particularly impressed but again one of the most physically gifted receivers in the class all right stock up if you guys uh have your opinions on any players that the final preseason week got you excited about drop them in the comments below make sure if you guys have enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and I'll see you in the next one this uh leave your comments below because you get opportunities to win like our brand new giveaway the Todd Gurley signed Rams jersey just by subscribing and commenting below you've got your opportunity and if you can you can rate and review on the podcast side we really appreciate talking NFL with you guys and hopefully you're going to stick with us all season because we got some other cool stuff besides having breakdowns of the weekly matchups previews for it from a real NFL perspective we're also looking at a midweek live where you guys can hang with us and it's just talking ball so hopefully you guys are going to do that and I'll see you in the next one and if you guys are looking for a little bit of we talked some betting stuff here make sure you're dialed into betting pros because we've got all the big stuff coming up week one all the big bets the prop show eric's and I are going to have so go and check out subscribe to betting pros so you don't miss any of that friends thank you so much for hanging out with us the NFL is oh so close we're almost here and we're going to enjoy it with you thank you that's a tailgate for fitzy and bogman i'm welsh we're out of here let's get in peace i am talking to a felon right now with face tattoos and i cannot decide if i like him or not that was a caller from my podcast therapy gecko where i speak with anonymous callers about their problems relationships and anything else in the depths of their mind it all happens on my show therapy gecko so if you're trying to get out of your own head and into someone else's this is the podcast for you listen to therapy gecko and i'll see you in the next one on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts on big lives we take a single cultural icon people like jane fonda george michael little richard and we pull apart the story behind the image discovering forgotten interviews that change exactly how we see these giants of our culture we're here for the messy the brilliant the human version of our heroes i'm emmanuel jochi i'm kai wright and this is big lives listen to big lives on the iheart radio app apple podcasts apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts dancing with the stars is looking for a new pro and since last season i came in eighth place i'm basically an expert i'm daniel fishel and i'm val schmerkovsky and we have a new podcast called stepping on toes with danielle and val every week we're breaking down dancing with the stars the next pro to find out who i'll be sharing the barn with next season listen to stepping on toes on america's number one podcast network iheart follow stepping on toes and start listening the free iHeartRadio app today. iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.