Week 2 of the preseason did not feature many stars.
The most notable appearance came from Patrick Mahomes, who stuck around for two drives, led the Kansas City Chiefs to two touchdowns and generally looked like Patrick Mahomes. Otherwise, the reigning MVP, offensive player of the year and rushing leader did not step off the sideline. Other notables like Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert left their snaps on the practice field and enjoyed a sunny day adjacent to some football.
Although the stakes were low as the exhibition season passed its halfway point, they still existed. Another week of the preseason was another glimpse into what the NFL will look like once the games actually matter. Some teams impressed. Others faltered.
So what did we learn?
1 Jordan Love is boosting his trade value, at the very least
The overall preseason numbers for Packers former first-round pick Jordan Love aren’t great. In two games he completed only 25 of his 48 passes for 289 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. His passer rating is just 65.4 — five points lower than Zach Wilson’s bumpy 2021 campaign.
But Love has been significantly better than his stats suggest. Aaron Rodgers’ understudy has put in work to elevate an already-thin receiving corps playing his backups in the exhibition season. On Friday he put together arguably his finest performance in the NFL.
His Pro Football Focus grade was an 82.2 — more than 46 points higher than his regular season score from 2021. While that’s not going to move the needle much in an exhibition contest against the Saints’ second stringers, the throws he put together were capital- letter On Point. He put all three of his passes of 20+ yards on the money, and while two were dropped (he suffered four total drops on the evening) they still pointed towards a bright future.
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What does this mean for 2022? Probably not much unless Aaron Rodgers gets COVID-19 again (which, since Kirk Cousins already got it, isn’t improbable). But if Green Bay feels the record-setting extension it signed its four-time MVP to this summer isn’t as airtight as it would like, the club may feel better about its Plan B. If the Packers are confident they’ll get three more years out of Rodgers — taking his tenure well beyond the expiration date of Love’s inexpensive rookie contract — that Plan B may have earned additional value on the trade market.
There aren’t many great comparisons for a player in Love’s position. The Patriots traded Jimmy Garoppolo away for an early second round pick in 2017, but he was also 2-0 as a starter with a 106.2 passer rating in limited snaps. Love is 0-1 with a 68.7 rating.
The Jets shipped Teddy Bridgewater to the Saints to serve as Drew Brees’ backup and potential successor after he showed signs of his old self during the 2018 preseason. He (along with a sixth-round sweetener) brought a late third-round pick in return despite his Pro Bowl 2016. This was thanks to lingering questions about the knee injury that nearly ended his career in 2016.
Where would that leave Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst? Love has a first round pedigree but remains shrouded in mystery, no matter how composed he looks from a clean pocket this preseason. Green Bay could probably ask for a third rounder in return if the team wanted to offload him this season, but any team seriously looking for a quarterback at this point is probably in emergency, “oh my goodness our starter is out for the season and we’re about to sign Jay Cutler,” mode. Garoppolo, currently available in San Francisco, is the better option for that.
Which leaves Love with another season of mop-up and fill-in duty to show the rest of the league he’s still a good quarterback, even if he can’t beat out the reigning NFL MVP.
2
The Seahawks’ quarterback battle might be just as confusing as we thought it would be
Geno Smith has shown enough in his NFL career to be considered for a starting job on Sundays. Last fall, with Russell Wilson hurt, he stepped up with some of the best football of his career at age 31.
In four games — three starts — the veteran put together a 5:1 touchdown:interception ratio, completed nearly 70 percent of his passes and recorded a career-best 103.0 passer rating. His 6.5 completion percentage over expected (CPOE) was second-best among all quarterbacks who played at least 100 snaps last season, trailing only Joe Burrow.
via RBSDM.com and the author
This wasn’t why Pete Carroll traded away Russell Wilson. It *was* why he felt comfortable letting Smith and new arrival Drew Lock battle for snaps this preseason. This has not gone well.
Lock missed this week’s game with COVID-19, which per Carroll, hit him pretty hard. Smith started, led his team to 11 points against the dollar store action figure lineup known as the 2022 Chicago Bears, left with a minor knee injury and did enough good things to baffle Twitter.
Like Love, Smith’s impact was muted thanks to underwhelming wideouts; by his third drive he was throwing to Penny Hart and Cade Johnson. Even occasional starter Freddie Swain was stuck knocking some rust off, leaving dads across the Pacific Northwest salivating at the chance to torture their children with weather forecasts where “Swaindrops” is the punchline:
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Aaron Fuller and Bo Melton combined for 21 targets on the night and caught only seven of them. Their 2.5 yards per target made them twice as inefficient as the team’s primary preseason running backs; Travis Homer and Darwin Thompson averaged more than seven yards per handoff.
That could be the only lesson we really take from Seattle’s exhibition run; Carroll threw the ball a ton in Week 2 and his passing game averaged fewer yards per attempt than his run game. After an offseason primed to return to the run heavy roots of his 2013 championship season, this could be all the evidence he needs to spam 30+ handoffs per game and hope to lure NFC West offenses into a rock fight.
It’s not the worst idea! The Seahawks have a talented, rich running back stable capable of absorbing that kind of workload. The offensive line, led by rookie preseason standouts Abe Lucas and Charles Cross, has the chops to push linebackers out of running lanes and keep Lock or Smith upright. Whomever wins the quarterback combination could have the support he needs to win games after putting up 91 net passing yards (this happened twice — TWICE! — in that 2013 Super Bowl run).
Of course, if Carroll’s defense folds and suddenly one of these quarterbacks has to throw his team back from a deficit, well, that’s when things get dicey.
3
Someone in your fantasy league is gonna take a 15th-round flier on Erik Ezukanma (and it might pay off huuuuuugggeee)
The Miami Dolphins effectively sat out their first two days of the 2022 NFL Draft thanks to the trade that brought Tyreek Hill to Florida. Miami didn’t make a selection until the 102nd pick.
But if the preseason is any indication, they still found a couple of difference makers. Third-round linebacker Channing Tindall led the team in tackles and didn’t whiff on a single opportunity. Undrafted free agent quarterback Skylar Thompson made his case to make the 53-man roster by completing nine of his 10 pass attempts for an uber-efficient 129 yards and a touchdown. And the guy he targeted most often shined brightest of all.
Ezukanma was brilliant in his second (kinda) game as a pro. He finished his night with six catches for 114 yards to provide a spark in an otherwise extremely preseason 15-13 Raiders win. But he wasn’t generating empty yards on blown coverages; the former Texas Tech standout showcased the body control and ball tracking to be an asset in Tua Tagovailoa’s third season in Miami:
There’s room for upward mobility in Miami’s wideout room. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are a clear-cut top two, but things are less certain after that. Ezukanma will be competing with players like Cedrick Wilson, Preston Williams, Trent Sherfield and Lynn Bowden for snaps. It may not be immediate, but he could settle in as a WR3/4 type in Mike McDonald’s offense.
McDonald has more receiver depth than he had last season calling plays in San Francisco. Ezukanma gives him a high-upside rookie to build up as the season wears on. If the preseason is any indication, he’s got the catch radius to make his quarterback look a whole lot better on Sundays.
4
Ah geez OK the Bengals may have turned their biggest weaknesses into strengths
The Cincinnati Bengals were easy to write off before the 2021 season. They had a second year quarterback behind a shaky offensive line. They the league’s 27th-ranked passing defense and had lost their top corner in free agency. This was not supposed to be a playoff team, let alone division and conference champion.
But Joe Burrow persisted despite getting sacked 70 times in 20 games and engineered the kind of offense capable of overcoming a 24th-ranked passing defense and Cincinnati made it all the way to Super Bowl 56. And then the Bengals gave up three passing touchdowns and Burrow was sacked seven times and Los Angeles got a championship parade instead of southwestern Ohio.
That led to some common sense upgrades that took advantage of the inexpensive rookie contracts to which Burrow and WR1 Ja’Marr Chase are currently signed. Adding offensive linemen La’el Collins, Alex Cappa and Ted Karras in free agency freed up the capital to select defensive backs Daxton Hill and Cam Taylor-Britt in the draft.
So far, these moves have paid off. That revamped offensive line has only allowed four sacks in the preseason so far, though it’s tough to say just how much those changes will carry into the regular season since it’s mostly a crew of backups. The more important development is in the secondary, where Hill looks like the real deal:
Hill is currently slotted in as a safety, but his versatility means he can fill any gaps coordinator Lou Anarumo finds in his defense (he said, glaring at Eli Apple). In his final season at Michigan, he played slot corner, box safety, free safety and outside corner. He has the instincts and closing speed to create havoc no matter where he ends up.
Taylor-Britt has been shelved due to a core injury, but could return for the regular season to force his way into the lineup as well. This is all wonderful for Cincinnati, who saw the rest of the AFC bulk up considerably in an effort to take a run at its crown. Hill and franchise-tagged Jessie Bates III are a banger safety duo and Hill has the chops to move to the slot or outside if Anarumo wants to get Vonn Bell in the lineup to annihilate ballcarriers.
The Bengal defense came together when it mattered most to spur a playoff run. Now that group has even more talent. If we can say the same about this rebuilt offensive line, then Joe Burrow’s got a stew goin’.
5
Fine, let’s talk about Daniel Jones
Jones is a tough player to take seriously. He’s the guy who proved Dave Gettleman kinda/sorta right by throwing for four-plus touchdowns three times as a rookie. He’s also the guy who’s athletic enough to break off an 80-yard scramble but not finish it because he has the coordination of a baby giraffe.
Jones was occasionally decent as a rookie and showed enough promise for Giants fans to at least entertain the idea he could be a franchise quarterback. But injuries, bad coaching and disastrous roster management derailed him. His touchdown rate dropped, he took fewer chances downfield, and any modest gains in his accuracy were negated by his inability to make impact throws and the waning efficiency of his scrambles.
Underneath all that a hint of promise remains. Jones’ on-target throw rate has only improved since that rookie season. In Week 2 of the preseason, he showed off the kind of touch that could finally spark the improvement for which New York has been waiting.
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He finished his evening by completing 14 of his 16 passes, all of which were on target. His one interception slipped through the hands of rookie tight end Daniel Bellinger (sensing a trend in these quarterback breakdowns? All their targets kinda suck in the preseason, so don’t rely on stats).
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It’s the second-straight solid performance from Jones, who is making the right reads in the pocket and trusting a boosted wideout corps that should be significantly improved following the addition of Wan’Dale Robinson and hopefully healthy seasons from Kadarius Toney and Kenny Golladay. Is any of this trustable? Probably not! But his new head coach is firmly in his corner and Jones has shown the tools to be effective even if he’s been wholly unable to do it on a consistent basis.
There’s a chance — not a great one, but a chance — Jones parlays 2022 into evidence someone, somewhere could still see him as a starter. Hell, if it worked for Mitchell Trubisky, why not the other state of North Carolina college quarterback who was drafted way too high?
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