Day: August 24, 2026

Welcome to the Quarterback Notebook, where I’ll be covering the past week in NFL quarterbacking — from the most interesting passers, plays and storylines, to some other stuff that caught my eye while watching film. In this preseason edition of the notebook, I’ll make the case for Fernando Mendoza to start in Las Vegas, weigh in on the Rams’ backup quarterback competition, examine the Drew Allar hype, and more. Let’s talk quarterbacks. The Raiders plan to subject us to a full season of Kirk Cousins as part of Fernando Mendoza’s developmental plan. While that’s disappointing, the reasoning is easy to understand. We’ve seen bad supporting casts stunt a young quarterback’s development. And if you’ve looked at the Raiders’ offensive depth chart at any point this summer, you know it lacks the supporting talent that most rookie passers need to have a successful campaign. After watching Mendoza’s first two preseason games, though, the Las Vegas brain trust, led by Tom Brady, should feel confident that Mendoza isn’t like most rookies. He’s already showing the polish and refinement coaches want to see from developing quarterbacks before handing them the keys to the offense. Rookie Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak certainly isn’t treating him like a rookie quarterback with his playcalling. In games against the Cardinals and Texans, Kubiak essentially threw Mendoza into the schematic deep end, with very few schemed-up throws, like screen passes or run-pass options, and a healthy dosage of big-boy dropback concepts that even veteran passers can find difficult to execute. Mendoza has certainly shown some signs of his youth, especially when his first read doesn’t pop open, but the good has easily outweighed the bad. I’ve been most impressed with Mendoza’s eyes. They always seem to go to the right spots based on the coverage. The Raiders have dialed up a lot of “pick a side” concepts that see Mendoza read the safeties and pick a side of the field to work based on the coverage shell. That’s not exactly 400-level quarterbacking, but young QBs routinely botch those reads, and Mendoza has had no such issues so far. If you’ve ever heard Mendoza talk about quarterbacking, that’s hardly surprising. The dude is a robot who sounds like his brain is synced with an AI chatbot trained on coach axioms and old Bill Walsh playbooks. I have been pleasantly surprised by how crafty Mendoza has already proven to be. This throw from the preseason opener against Arizona is a good example of Mendoza working outside of the scheme to make a play. There isn’t much of a window there with the Arizona linebacker dropping underneath the deep stop route, so Mendoza looks outside to hold the defender out of the throwing lane just long enough to zip a ball past him. From the end-zone angle, you can see that Mendoza is looking to the outside of the defender before throwing the ball back inside of him. Now that is 400-level quarterbacking. Here’s another throw you don’t often see from rookie quarterbacks, with Mendoza hitting a backside “drift” route after Arizona covers up his frontside read. That’s a staple play-call in Kubiak’s scheme, which is heavily influenced by his former boss, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. If you can’t make that throw, you can’t play in this offense. That Mendoza already seems to have it down is a sure sign that he’s game-ready. If I were to nitpick that play, I would point out Mendoza’s awkward footwork as he works to the backside. He can’t get his base under him as he makes the throw. But that’s exactly why he should be on the field getting reps. Mendoza already has the mental acuity to play NFL quarterback. He just needs to get comfortable executing against a live defense. That won’t happen on the bench. That 35-yard connection between Bo Nix and new Broncos wide receiver Jaylen Waddle set off an internet debate over the quality of that throw. My take: It’s complicated. All things considered, the throw itself is fine. Sure, Nix slowed Waddle down and probably cost him a long touchdown, but we can’t ignore the pass rush’s effect on the pass. Packers defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt is bearing down on Nix and gets a hand up to disrupt his throwing motion. He has to snap it off early and can’t get a proper follow-through. That’s probably why Next Gen Stats had the completion probability at just 46%, even with Waddle running wide open down the seam. The throw wasn’t the layup that it looks like if you’re only focusing on the catch point. But that’s not where the analysis should end. Nix had the time and space to slide up in the pocket into a cleaner throwing platform, which would have lowered the pass’ degree of difficulty considerably. Pocket management has been the most glaring issue in Nix’s game early in his career, and that has had a downstream impact on his accuracy, as it did in this instance. If the third-year quarterback is going to make the leap Denver is hoping for this season, he’ll have to clean up this one particular issue. There hasn’t been much separating Stetson Bennett and Ty Simpson this preseason as they battle for the right to back up reigning MVP Matthew Stafford. Simpson was the better quarterback in the first game, but Bennett hit back in game two, leading the Rams to 20 points on five drives against the Saints while L.A.’s first-round pick was merely fine. With just one more week left in the preseason, the competition still appears to be wide open. Rams head coach Sean McVay’s final decision will give us a clue as to how the offense might run if Stafford has to miss time during the season. Simpson has been the cleaner of the two, completing nearly 80 percent of his passes, while Bennett has been the more ambitious quarterback with a much higher average air yards per attempt (8.7 yards to 4.7). The rookie hasn’t logged a single deep attempt, according to Next Gen Stats, which tells me the Rams haven’t taken the training wheels off for Simpson. Nearly a quarter of his throws have been to the flat, per Next Gen Stats, with many of those coming after play-action fakes. Los Angeles has been spamming bootlegs throughout the exhibition games, and it’s helped pad Simpson’s completion percentage. The play-call menu has been more expansive when Bennett is out there, with more straight dropbacks and passing concepts that allow the 28-year-old to scan the entire field. It looks more like the offense we’ll see Stafford run during the regular season with Bennett on the field. The Simpson offense has looked more like McVay’s early days in Los Angeles when he was calling plays for a young Jared Goff. McVay was eager to part ways with Goff and level up his passing game with Stafford. Unless the Rams coach wants to return to the pre-Stafford offense, Bennett will be the next man up if Stafford goes down. If he wants a steadier hand and a safer offense, Simpson could steal the backup job. Simpson has the higher upside, but I’d roll with Bennett for now. He’s willing — but not always able — to make the tougher perimeter throws, like this audacious touch throw he made in the win over New Orleans. And McVay lauded Bennett’s scrambling after he rushed for two touchdowns Saturday night. That second-reaction ability adds another layer to the Rams’ offense that even the league’s MVP can’t provide. The Steelers have already made it clear that Drew Allar’s rookie season will be a redshirt year, so there’s no need to rush into debates on how the third-round pick’s career will turn out. But with Allar putting a handful of flashy throws on tape over the first weeks, including this perfectly weighted ball down the sideline against the Jets, there’s been a rush to anoint him as Pittsburgh’s long-term answer at quarterback. I guess we’ll be spending these last few weeks before the regular season debating the future of a quarterback who was largely an afterthought during the draft cycle. So, let’s get into it. That’s admittedly a sweet-looking throw, with Allar dropping it in a bucket near the sideline 38 yards downfield. The play loses some of its luster when you zoom out to the all-22 angle and see that tight end Lake McRee was running into acres of open grass and provided his quarterback with a wide margin for error. That’s a throw you’d expect most NFL quarterbacks to make — and there are plenty of them who would have made things a bit easier on the receiver, which has been a theme through the two preseason games. Pittsburgh’s receivers have burned Allar with a few drops, but the rookie throwing outside the frame of his target has contributed to some of those missed connections. If I were a Steelers fan, I’d also be giddy about Allar’s start — but I’d be just as concerned with some of the red flags. Allar’s tendency to drift back in the pocket rather than stepping up is chief among them. The rookie has the arm talent to make throws while fading back, but he’d make things a lot easier for himself if he threw with a firm base more consistently. Good quarterbacks don’t make things harder for themselves. The good ones find a way to make the difficult things look easier play after play. It’s not surprising that Allar has made some impressive throws. His pre-draft scouting report touted him as a quarterback with a talented arm who had issues reading coverage and maintaining proper throwing mechanics. We’ve seen plenty of those weaknesses over the past two weeks. After two up-and-down preseason games, there’s no need to update that scouting report on what he could be. Allar has yet to show us anything we (and the NFL teams that let him fall to the third round) didn’t already know. The Steelers should continue to develop him, but the team’s search for its next franchise quarterback isn’t over just yet. With over a hundred quarterbacks taking reps in the preseason, it’s impossible to cover everything in this notebook, so here are five quickfire thoughts and takes on some quarterbacks around the league. 1. Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. are competing for the Falcons’ starting job, but undrafted free agent Jack Strand, a standout Division II Minnesota State–Moorhead quarterback, might be the best quarterback on the roster. 2. Jordan Love’s MVP odds are far too low. The Packers are going to be in some shootouts, and based on what he showed in Denver on Friday night, he may have leveled up his game. 3. If the offensive line keeps Geno Smith clean like it did Friday, the Jets’ offense is going to be a lot better than you think. 4. I’m still not ready to give up on Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, whose preseason tape has been a lot better than the numbers imply. Teams like Miami, Cleveland and Atlanta should give the Colts a call if Riley Leonard ends up winning the QB2 job behind Daniel Jones in Indy. 5. Joe Milton has been my favorite watch of the preseason. He’s more than just a strong arm. Dak Prescott is one of the better quarterbacks in the league, but the Cowboys’ offense won’t fall off a cliff if he has to miss time this season.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

There’s no position in sports that’s debated more than quarterback. And for the first time in years, there’s plenty of debate about who the best quarterback in the NFL is. After Patrick Mahomes’ and the Kansas City Chiefs’ underwhelming 2025 season, there’s no consensus on who is the No. 1 quarterback in the league. Matthew Stafford is the reigning MVP winner, while Josh Allen played at an elite level again last season following his MVP win in 2024. Then there are the likes of Lamar Jackson, who is a two-time MVP winner, and Joe Burrow, who has been statistically dominant when healthy. So, which quarterback is actually the best in the league entering the 2026 campaign? Here is how the six of us ranked the 10 best quarterbacks. Greg Auman: Goff finished second in the NFL last year behind only Matthew Stafford in both passing touchdowns (34) and passing yards (4,564). He’s topped 4,400 passing yards four years in a row, and his 130 passing touchdowns since 2022 are 13 more than any other quarterback. What’s missing? Goff only has two playoff wins in five years in Detroit, so the best thing he can do to elevate his status is beat other top quarterbacks head-to-head in January. If Detroit is healthy on defense and a reshuffled offensive line can work, it’ll be a playoff team again and potentially a dangerous one. Detroit’s last two games are at Chicago and Green Bay, so it very well might be that its playoff run starts in Week 17. Can Goff outduel Caleb Williams and Jordan Love on the road down the stretch? Eric D. Williams: At 6-foot-6 and 236 pounds and blessed with one of the strongest arms in football, Herbert possesses all the physical tools to be considered one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. The Oregon product also has the stats to back up that claim. Herbert’s 24,820 passing yards through the first six seasons of his career are second in league history. He is the only player ever to eclipse 4,000 yards in each of his first three years and his 31 games with 300-plus passing yards rank tied for second in the NFL since 2020. Still, Herbert has failed to get it done in the postseason, going 0-3 so far in the playoffs. The Chargers believe the addition of new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel will unlock a higher level of play for Herbert and the Bolts’ offense, which will lead to a deep postseason run in head coach Jim Harbaugh’s third season with the team. Henry McKenna: I’m happy we have Love on this list. I’m not sure that Love’s statistical breakthrough season is coming this year, given that he still doesn’t have a bona fide WR1. But I will say that his breakthrough season — from a decision-making and consistency standpoint — was last year. His game was clunky and filled with easy mistakes in 2024, perhaps because of pressure or perhaps because of injuries. But in 2025, he looked like the NFL’s best decision-maker, capable of managing games from throw to throw and drive to drive. He didn’t throw a million passes, but he generated the explosives when they presented themselves and largely took what the defense gave him. I’m expecting another impressive year on film and in advanced statistics, even if I can’t promise he’s a top-10 fantasy QB. Ben Arthur: While playoff success has eluded him, Prescott has long been considered a top-10 quarterback. The 33-year-old this past season led the NFL in completions for the second time in his career (404) and registered his fourth 4,000-yard passing season. The former fourth-round pick ranked in the top five in passing yards, passing touchdowns, EPA (expected points added) per dropback and completion rate over expected in 2025. Notably, Prescott is one of the NFL’s most aggressive passers. He led the league in tight window rate for the third time in the last four years last season. Entering his second year with the CeeDee Lamb-George Pickens tandem at receiver, the four-time Pro Bowler is positioned to continue putting up big numbers in 2026. McKenna: The guy made it to the Super Bowl in his second year. Admittedly, he got trounced immediately after arriving in the big game. But it was a testament to his ascendance in a season when he finished second in MVP voting behind Matthew Stafford. Last year, Maye was outstanding in just about every measurement. You want wins? He had 14 in the regular season and three more in the postseason. You want touchdowns? He scored 35 total last year. You want efficiency and advanced stats? He completed 72% of his passes and finished with an EPA per dropback of .25 (first in the NFL). Last season was an ascent comparable only to what we’ve seen from Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Now the question is whether — with a tougher schedule — Maye can maintain what he’s built. Whether he can meet this new standard. That uncertainty is what’s keeping him out of the top five. Auman: Burrow had five playoff wins and a Super Bowl appearance in his first three years in the league, but the Bengals have now missed the playoffs three years in a row. That’s on a terrible defense and Burrow’s bad injury luck. Can both change in 2026? The Bengals are the AFC’s Cowboys, led by a prolific quarterback and two elite receivers but hobbled by a bottom-five defense. Can Burrow stay healthy and get back to his dominant 43-touchdown form in 2024? That, and even a mediocre defense, will put the Bengals back in the playoffs and give Burrow a chance to reset himself among the elite quarterbacks in the league, not by reputation, but on production. Their schedule is super-easy, with only five games out of 17 against the top half of our most recent power rankings. Arthur: Jackson missed four games last season due to injury, but he remains on the shortlist of superstar quarterbacks when healthy. In 2024, his last full season, the two-time MVP led the NFL in touchdown rate, yards per attempt and passer rating. He also added 915 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns on a league-high 6.6 yards per carry that year. Entering his age-29 season, the mobility that has made Jackson arguably the best dual-threat quarterback of all time could start to diminish. It’ll be paramount for the four-time Pro Bowler to continue making massive strides as a passer. In 2024, the former first-round pick registered his first 4,000-yard passing season. Williams: Stafford deservedly won a close competition over Drake Maye for the NFL MVP award last season — the first time the 38-year-old signal caller took home the trophy in his illustrious, 18-year career. Stafford lit up the scoreboard for L.A.’s offense in 2025, leading the league in touchdown passes (46), passing yards (4,707) and finishing second in passer rating (109.2). Stafford threw a league-high 32 touchdowns and just one interception against the blitz during his MVP season. Stafford missed most of training camp last year with a balky back, so can he make it through a full season healthy again? The Rams drafted Ty Simpson in the first round as insurance, but he’ll likely not be ready to lead this team, heavily favored to win the Super Bowl. So, it will be up to head coach Sean McVay to keep Stafford upright. Stafford played a full, 17-game season for the first time last year since 2021. Arthur: Mahomes may be the “GOAT” of this era, but his passing numbers in recent years have been nowhere near as spectacular as they were at the start of his career. He’s also coming off the first major injury of his career: a torn ACL. In 14 games last season, he completed 62.7% of his passes for 3,587 yards and 22 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. The reality, though, is that he remains one of the most gifted and creative quarterbacks of all time. He ranks first in league history in passing yards per game (285.2) and passing success rate (51.9%). His postseason success is also unparalleled among his peers: three Super Bowl rings, three Super Bowl MVPs, five Super Bowl appearances and seven AFC Championship Game appearances. If Rashee Rice is healthy and focused, Mahomes will have his best wide receiver room in years. Having reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III in the backfield takes pressure off him as well. Ralph Vacchiano: If Allen could just win one championship, he might end up being in the conversation with Patrick Mahomes as the greatest quarterback of their generation. And really, he should be anyway. He’s finished in the top five in MVP voting four straight years, and five of the last six. That also includes four finishes in the top four. Allen still has the strongest arm in the game and is a lock to run for 500 yards and double-digit touchdowns every year. He may not be putting up the gaudy numbers he did earlier in his career, but he’s still averaged 3,700 passing yards and 27 touchdowns the last two seasons with a questionable arsenal of weapons and no true No. 1 receiver. Allen was also the MVP in 2024 and might have ended up finishing higher than third last year if the Bills could have prevented him from getting sacked a career-high 40 times. This year, the Bills upgraded his receiving corps a little with D.J. Moore and he could get an even bigger boost with his old offensive coordinator Joe Brady now running things his way as the Bills head coach. Allen is 30, so he isn’t exactly running out of time. But there is definitely a feeling in Buffalo and around the league that his time may be right now.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

We’ve passed the midpoint of preseason. The regular season is drawing near. It’s starting to feel like we know so much about each team … and at the same time, we know absolutely nothing. Who’s going to win the NFC North? How about the NFC West? Are the Patriots going to be kings of the AFC East — or will it be the Bills? The Ravens and Eagles are really back, aren’t they? Aren’t they?! Can the Bengals finally … not get in their own way? Let’s make sense of the league and the never-ending news cycle. This is Sound Smart, where I try to spin forward, dive deeper, think outside the box and read between the lines. The Philadelphia Eagles would’ve seen a flag on just about every play during their joint practices with the New England Patriots last week. Philly had as many as 13 men in the huddle. On purpose. On every play, receiver DeVonta Smith would stroll into the huddle (not wearing a helmet) and listen to the play call. Then he’d stand back with the backup quarterbacks to watch the play unfold. Smith, who is dealing with a hamstring injury, is getting every mental rep he can. “[It’s] helping my process every play — hearing a play call, hearing the words coming out of Jay’s [Jalen Hurts] mouth, and just overall … what I’m thinking of, what I see, and things like that,” Smith said Wednesday. It would’ve been hard enough to get promoted from WR2 to WR1 in the wake of the A.J. Brown trade. But Smith also has to learn a new offense under freshly-hired OC Sean Mannion — without taking many reps in the month of August. So that makes it all the more important to hear every play. It’s a new language. And given how much the Eagles will be counting on Smith, he has to make up for lost time. And then there’s the other extra guy who was in the huddle — admittedly less frequently. That was rookie receiver Makai Lemon, who is also nursing a hamstring injury. It’s a similar story. It’s hard enough to be a rookie, with the added pressure of being a first-rounder. But he is expected to contribute immediately as the team’s WR2. There are even more layers of complication for the newbie. “It’s a challenge because he’s not out there getting the actual reps,” Hurts said of Lemon last week. “But just being intentional with the walkthroughs, being intentional with the moments we have off the field and after practice.” For some teams, it can feel like training camp is dragging on forever. I’m not sure it’ll feel like that for the Eagles. It must feel more like they’re up against the clock, even with a few weeks until the first regular-season game against the Washington Commanders. The one advantage that the Eagles have is that — even without their top receivers in the lineup — their quarterback has been through this. Hurts has had a new offensive coordinator in all but one of his seven seasons in Philly. “I don’t know it any other way,” he said. The other advantage is that the Eagles have three-time Pro Bowl running back Saquon Barkley. He seems to be this offense’s identity — it starts with him. He’ll have a major role in the running game and passing game. And even though the Eagles’ passing attack struggled mightily with inefficiency and turnovers against the Patriots, Barkley didn’t have issues finding room to run. The more you listen to the way Barkley talks about Mannion, the more you can hear his confidence in this new system. “When you talk to the coaches, everybody keeps mentioning it. [It’s] the work that he’s putting in,” Barkley said of the new OC. “I don’t think there’s really anybody that can beat him into the building. I think he’s still the last one to leave the building. I think that’s pretty cool when you have a guy that’s that bought in.” I have a ruling on the Dexter Lawrence trade. I saw him intercept Bears QB Caleb Williams in joint practices — and I’ve seen enough. It’s a win for the Bengals. OK, I’m sort of kidding. But if you remember, I was a fan of the trade when the Bengals got the two-time All-Pro defensive tackle from the New York Giants in April. So now that Lawrence is proving to be a game-wrecker for Cincinnati, I will begin my first victory lap. The Bengals traded the 10th overall pick in a package that got them Lawrence. On the clock at No. 10, the Giants took tackle Francis Mauigoa. The players available included safety Caleb Downs and edge Rueben Bain, among others. They’re good players. They’re not likely to be as impactful as Lawrence in 2026. And that’s what really matters to the Bengals. Because QB Joe Burrow is tired of losing. He’s thinking about the Super Bowl. This year. “You know, I’m tired of saying, ‘Next year, next year, next year.’ This is it,” Burrow told reporters. “Life is too short to keep pushing things down the road, and I’m trying to instill some urgency and some intensity in everybody to go and be great every day and try to go make it happen.” Lawrence is helping carry out that vision. The Bengals need to keep investing in that vision. Fernando Mendoza’s second preseason game left me wanting more — not always in a good way. Before we dive in, I want to rewind to his first outing against the Arizona Cardinals. In that game, Mendoza looked … solid. Nothing exceptionally good or bad. But it was a performance he needed to build on, if he was going to put additional pressure on presumed starter Kirk Cousins. Because, to be clear, Mendoza looks solid on the whole. If the Raiders wanted to play him, they could. And he’d struggle and learn on the job. But that’s not what they want. They want him to be better than Cousins before he plays. And that’s just not where Mendoza is at — yet. In the first preseason game, he put together a nice drive, which included a chunk play to Malik Benson and an anticipation throw (which seemed to demonstrate pre-snap confidence in reading the defense) in the red zone for a 6-yard touchdown to receiver Jack Bech. Those were plays where Mendoza’s timing was ideal. But there were others when he was late to throw — when he waited too long and missed his window. That made perfect sense. He has taken more than twice as many snaps under center in just these two preseason games (13) than he did in his entire season at Indiana (6). This will take time. So back to his second preseason outing. You probably know by now that he threw an interception, which the Texans returned for a touchdown. It was a rookie mistake, with Mendoza looking off a throw that he could make and turning to the wrong checkdown at the wrong moment — too late. It’s a play he needs to throw away. Mendoza, again, looked a beat late on several plays. And then there was the stuff beyond his control. He took a sack that wasn’t his fault, with pressure coming up the middle instantaneously. He took pressure much quicker than expected on a screen pass, which ruined the timing of the play, which could have gone for 50 yards — but ended up with nine. I still like Mendoza. I still think he’ll start at some point this season. And while the Raiders would love for him to show progress (which he has!), they also have made it clear they’d prefer to keep him on the bench for as long as possible. His interception was the perfect excuse to do just that. He can make these rookie mistakes in practice, where he can do them behind closed doors — and without external scrutiny. If that’s what they really want, that’s what they can now do. Eli Manning famously rejected the San Diego Chargers leading into the 2004 NFL Draft. Peyton Manning famously returned to Tennessee and college football rather than land with Bill Parcells’ Jets in 1997. Would their nephew, Texas QB Arch Manning, do something similar ahead of the 2027 NFL Draft? There are a few strong candidates to lock up the No. 1 overall pick in 2027. The Jets and Cardinals make sense. But after the Cleveland Browns named Deshaun Watson as QB1, no other team is in a better position to get the top pick. Cleveland’s quarterback situation would be considered untenable for any other organization. The Browns have a plan, which is that they’ll explore Watson (and probably QB Shedeur Sanders, too) in 2026 and likely draft their next franchise QB in the upcoming class, which is supposed to boast several elite prospects. It’s actually not that bad of a plan. Objectively, no one wants to play Watson. Sanders has yet to live up to his “LEGENDARY” brand name. But if there was any season to tank, this would be it, with a swath of outstanding QB prospects eligible for next year’s draft. Unless … well, the plan could backfire. If the Browns pick at No. 1, then it’s possible that a handful of the elite prospects won’t want to land in Cleveland. And if one guy stays in school, that could lead others to follow suit. The biggest flight risk might be the top projected prospect, Manning. He might be the highest-profile prospect since Peyton. “I’ve spent a lot of time with Archie [Manning] and [Arch’s dad] Cooper [Manning],” draft analyst Todd McShay said on the “Brandon Walker College Football Show.” “I’ve spent a lot of time in Thibodaux, Louisiana, talking to the Manning family. The 2027 draft is not — by any stretch — a guarantee that Arch is going to be in it.” Oregon Ducks QB Donte Moore, in play to be the No. 1 prospect, is only a redshirt junior. Same with South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers, who could play his way into first-overall contention. The good news is that there are others: Notre Dame’s C.J. Carr, Ohio Sate’s Julian Sayin and USC’s Jayden Maiava. The Browns should end up with a good QB if they’re picking at No. 1. But it’s worth considering whether they might repel the best of the best. If Manning stays in school, he’ll see the Jets, Cardinals and Browns draft QBs in Round 1. So that means avoiding some of the historically awful franchises for a QB. It’s a long way away. But it already makes sense. The good news for Stroud is that he entered the NFL as a serviceable quarterback. The bad news for Stroud is that, in 2026, he’s roughly as serviceable. As the Texans and Stroud begin negotiations on what the QB is worth, they are apparently not particularly close, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. And I can imagine why. Stroud is the same guy who gave Caleb Williams advice after a game, with the Texans QB speaking down to Williams, like Stroud had years of NFL experience — like he was an accomplished vet. The moment lacked self-awareness. And now Stroud probably wants to get paid like an accomplished vet. Maybe those demands, again, lack self-awareness. In all likelihood, the Texans will have to pay Stroud. But not before making him prove himself — and get that nasty taste of the team’s last playoff run out of the Texans’ mouths. 1. I think I’m worried about Titans QB Cam Ward again. Last week, I felt like I was being a little melodramatic about Ward’s calamitous first preseason outing. Because it’s only preseason, right? But yet again this week, Ward looked like one of the worst QB1s who played. Last week’s excuse was that the sample size was too small. But that sample is getting bigger and nothing has changed. I’m still worried. 2. I think this throw from Rams QB Stetson Bennett was utter nonsense. How did he do it? 3. I think a few rookie receivers are coming back down to earth. There were a few names during the early weeks of training camp who seemed to be the next Randy Moss: Chiefs receiver Cyrus Allen, Browns receiver Denzel Boston, Saints receiver Jordyn Tyson. Allen literally seemed like the second coming of Tyreek Hill — but then he was WR5 in the preseason game this weekend, going in after Tyquan Thornton and Jaylen Royals. Boston had all the hype before the team got into pads, but I’ve seen his name fade since then. And Tyson, who was a human highlight reel at Saints camp, suffered a serious hamstring injury that’s going to mean he misses some time. 4. I think a few rookie receivers are not coming back down to earth. All you fantasy folks out there, keep an eye out for receivers Ja’Kobi Lane (Ravens), De’Zhaun Stribling (49ers) and Caleb Douglas (Dolphins). I also like Allen a lot, even with this rearrangement of the depth chart. He might not be Hill 2.0, but he’s still probably going to be good. 5. I think I’m relieved Raiders RB Ashton Jeanty is OK. He went down in practice on Sunday with an ankle injury, but he appears to be OK per multiple reports. He will likely miss some of the regular season. But man, it would’ve been truly awful to see him miss the season before it began, particularly after such a disappointing rookie year behind a crappy offensive line. 6. I think Ben Johnson loves keeping Caleb Williams humble. There was a throw that made the rounds on social media from the Chicago Bears QB. Williams targeted tight end Colston Loveland on a seam route near the end zone, and the QB put the ball in a hard-to-reach spot. Who was at fault? Should Loveland have caught it? Johnson cleared up any confusion: “I probably would go somewhere else with the ball on that one.” Loveland should never have been the target. Receiver Kaden Davis was wide open underneath. This is the philosophical battle between Johnson and Williams: Take the killshot or take the easy ones.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports