The Cowboys Are Now Fully Dak Prescottās Team. He Says Heās Ready
OXNARD, Calif. ā The excuses might as well be right there for Dak Prescott, sitting on the coffee table in this spacious Residence Inn guest room. He could tell you that his NFL sophomore slump was thanks to Dez Bryant and Jason Witten getting older. Or to some moving parts along the offensive line. Or to Zeke Elliottās suspension. Or to the fact that expectations were out of whack coming off his starry rookie campaign. The now-firmly-installed face of Americaās Team reached for none of those. And thatās probably why the people around Cowboys camp talk about him like they do. āIt was me,ā Prescott told me on Saturday, without a second of hesitation. āItās just about being more consistent. I simply was trying to do too much last year. And as I was trying to do too much, I was getting away from my simple reads. I was maybe passing by my second read to try to get to my third read, or skipping over one or two, trying to get to the big throw early, rushing things. āI was wanting to make that big play, I was wanting to do the spectacular. coach Mullen told me when I was in college, a lot of being a quarterback is making a lot of unspectacular plays that donāt necessarily look great but turn out to be the right thing. And so I think in Year 2, I was simply trying to do too much.ā In some ways, the 2018 Cowboys will need more from Prescott, and he knows it. But itās probably not in the ways youāre thinking. Thatās what he learned going through last year. The idea of taking over after losing a big name or two, and trying to be more as a quarterback? Heās been through that, and now, as he sees it, is when his growth will come through taking an approach counter to all of that. āI have bigger and higher expectations for myself than anyone else does or ever will, so for me itās not trying to live up to expectations,ā Prescott continued. āBut you want to win, and you want to make that play to win. Itās that, trying to win on every throw, I got myself out of position. Sometimes you want it too much. You look at some of my interceptions, itās simple as that.ā So his hope is that his place as a player will, in a way, shrink. Conversely, his place on the team will have to grow, and weāll explain that.
James D. Smith via AP In this weekās jam-packed MMQB, weāre going to take you through my August tour, with a look at Philip Riversās future, a wider-ranging peek into Rams camp, an explanation of the Brownsā quarterback decision-making, the culture Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are building in San Francisco, and some info on Odell Beckham and the officiating of the helmet rule as the Bears and Ravens staffs saw it. But weāre starting with Prescott and his place within the leagueās flagship franchise, and how the change there was signified by a phone call he got on May 1. On the line was Jason Witten and, whether it was intended that way or not, it became a passing-of-the-torch moment for a quarterback who was three months shy of his 25th birthday. āIt came out that he was retiring and he spent that weekāIām thinking about it, Iām figuring out what Iām going to do,ā Prescott said. āAnd it was then when he called me, two days before his actual retirement speech, he was like, āIām making it official.ā We had a heart-to-heart about how great it was playing with each other, and he encouraged me to be that guy.ā There was a reason why that talk hit Prescott a certain way, too. āWitt handled things in the locker room, off the field, on the field, he was the ultimate leader,ā Prescott said. āHe shaped me, shaped some other guys in the locker room to be that leader. , he was telling me, Youāre that guy, you can be that guy, go be that guy. Iād credit a lot of the steps Iām taking to be a leader to Witt. It was great.ā It was also necessary, which Prescott knew well before that conversation. With the departures of Witten, Bryant and others, the Cowboys were left with just three players on the roster over 30ālinebacker Sean Lee, kicker Dan Bailey and long-snapper LP Ladoucer. Star-studded as it is, the entire offensive line is 27 or younger. Elliottās only 23. And as Prescott said, Witten cast a long shadow as a leader. Just the same, it wasnāt unnatural. There was no question that Prescott was capable of taking charge, a belief Jason Garrett and the staff had going back to intel they got in the spring of 2016 from Mullenās staff, and one that was solidified in the Dallas locker room right away after Tony Romo got hurt that August. Garrett always had Romo address the offense before games, and he had no problem plugging Prescott in to do that. āSaturday night, his first game, he stepped up there and talked for about five, 10 minutes and it was as smooth as can be, as confident as can be, and guys realized he was for real,ā All-Pro guard Zack Martin said. āRookie, Week 1, opening with the Giants on Sunday Night Football, it was like he had been doing it for 10 years. Heās just got it. I donāt really know what āitā is, but heās got that āitā factor as a quarterback.ā This offseason, though, he realized he had to get to a point where heād be a little more vocal in the room, a little more willing to tell teammates truths that might not be so comfortableāan approach that, after talking to Witten and thinking on it, he believes may have helped last year. āWe went 9-7. A lot of teams would pay to go 9-7 and be one game out of the playoffs, but it was a sh---y year for us,ā he said. āThe way things went down, there were things we couldāve fixed as leaders on and off the field. And going into Year 3, Iāve just said to myself, āIām gonna do everything the right way.ā If I see something I donāt like, Iām gonna say something about it. If it causes conflict, well, it causes conflict.ā That brings us back to his play, and Prescott knows that walking the walk remains the most vital piece of talking the kind of talk heās planning to come the season. So he took me through two examples of what precipitated a year-over-year drop in passer rating (104.9 to 86.6), TD-INT differential (23-4 to 22-13), completion percentage (67.8 to 62.9) and yards per attempt last year (8.0 to 6.9). ā¢ On a third down in the second quarter against the Eagles on Nov. 17, Prescott was pressured, and rather than play it safe and take the sack or throw it away, he threw the ball up to Bryant, who broke deep on a double move. In his words, all it took āwas a fair catchā for corner Ronald Darby, so much so that, if you watch the play, Malcolm Jenkins couldāve picked it off too. ā¢ Against the Chargers the next week, down 22-6 in the fourth quarter, and on a first down in the red zone, Prescott took the snap and had room to scramble right. Instead, he turned to his left and threw against his body to Cole Beasley. Without his body behind throw, he didnāt quite get everything on it. Desmond King picked it off, and went 90 yards for the game-sealing pick-six. On the former play, Prescott failed to cut his losses. On the latter, he declined to take what was there. On both, devastating blows were delivered by the opponent, when the quarterback could have lived to see another throw. That Prescott is so up front about what he did wrong on those plays is part of why, when you watch the Cowboys in camp, you might not see anything that jumps off the practice field about the quarterback. In his words, this summerās been for focusing on ābasics,ā emphasizing going through his reads, and making the right play, even if itās not the big one: āTrying to get there faster ā¦ Is it there? ā¦ Do I want it? ā¦ Boom, boom, boom, boom.ā And his teammates can see the work heās doing, too, which is part of why everyone here sees him as having such rare ability to lead. āThatās just who he is,ā Garrett says. āHe just has an amazing way of coming to work everyday with just an incredible spiritāāWeāve had success, OK, here we go, thatās behind us, we gotta keep going to the next one.ā And similarily, if things donāt go well, heās very accountableāāI didnāt do a good job, I shouldāve made that throw. Iāve got to play better.ā āHeās a great example for me as a coach, and a great example to his teammates, about how to go about it. The approach he takes is remarkably good. Itās beyond his years. Heās really an impressive guy, and weāre lucky to have him as our leader.ā Will Prescott rebound, and make up for the big-name losses, with Elliott, that line and a new defensive core around him? I donāt know. But one thing thatās obvious here is that coaches and teammates are behind him, and itās just as obvious whyā because heās behind them, and accountable to them too. It showed again when I asked if, with the old guard mostly gone, he feels a heightened sense of responsibility. āI definitely feel a responsibility, playing the quarterback position, ever since I was moved to the position in middle school,ā Prescott said. āIāve always felt like thereās responsibility that comes with being the quarterback. Youāre the face of the team. Youāre the leader of the team. And a lot of the time, wins and losses depend on what you do. Of course, thereās a responsibility level there. ā And heās certainly embraced it. ā¢ THE MORNING HUDDLE: Get The MMQBās newsletter, in your inbox first thing each Monday through Friday. Subscribe today. For However Long It Lasts, Philip Rivers Is Loving It Tom Brady has long said he wants to play until heās 45. Green Bayās Aaron Rodgers told me last week, āMinimum is 40.ā And others, like Drew Brees, have made mention of a belief that quarterbacks can play well into their 40s. Thatās why I was surprised when, the other day in Costa Mesa, I asked Chargers QB Philip Rivers how much football he has left, and he didnāt give what has become the stock answer. āIām super excited about a handful more years,ā Rivers told me. āI donāt have a number in my head. I laugh when I hear Drew, Bradyās already 41, when I hear them say mid-40s, I go, āYāall can have that. I have no desire to get there. One thing I am thankful about is I know what Iām gonna be doing when Iām done. Iām gonna be coaching high school football somewhere, maybe the very next season.ā
Tom Walko/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Rivers turns 37 in December, so a handful more seasons would actually get him a couple years into his 40s. But that wasnāt really his point. āIt could be two, my contractās up in two, but Iād like to get in that new stadium,ā Rivers continued. āCould it be four, five? I donāt know. I feel good. I donāt want to hang on, but I donāt feel like Iām there by any means right now. I want to stay aware, so when it does become that, Iāll know. And itās a two-sided dealāthey have to want me to still be here when it gets to that.ā Now for where Rivers stands going to this season. None of the Chargers coaches want to say thereās momentum carried over from last year, but all the guys I talked to conceded thereās a lot to build off of, based on how the team that went through a move, spent half its offseason as a sort-of about-to-be-evicted tenant of San Diego, played in a stadium often filled with visiting fans, started 0-4 and managed to get to 9-7. Rivers feels it too, to be sure. Anthony Lynn being back for a second year doesnāt hurt. Nor does the development of 2017 first-round wideout Mike Williams within the offenseāhe could replace some of what Hunter Henry brought to the tableāor a growing offensive line that adds center Mike Pouncey. As much as anything, and as much as he doesnāt want to call playing quarterback in the NFL easy, Rivers says he can let the game come to him more than he ever has, which has made everything easier. āI felt like last year was probably as consistent as Iāve been in four or five years,ā he said. āSteady is the word that comes to mind, not trying to do too much, taking care of the ball but making a bunch of big plays. We made a bunch of big plays. It wasnāt playing scared, but it also wasnāt trying to will us to win. Trust everyone else.ā And heās doing that from a leadership standpoint, too. Where in the past Rivers might have pushed and prodded teammates, heās now just as content to pass that torch to young vets like Melvin Ingramāwhich has allowed him to soak in being player, while he still is one. āIām trying to enjoy every part of it,ā Rivers said. āNorv told me back when he was here, gosh, five, six, seven years ago, that thereās going to come a time, and it happened to Fouts, when all your guys are going to be gone and youāre still playing, and it can be a little bit of a transition. Me and Hardwick and Gates, all these guys, it hits you because thatās one of my favorite parts of being a teammate, just being one of the guys. āI feel like after 15 years, you understand things like the coaches do, so you can coach and help them, but I want to be one of the guys. I donāt want to lose that.ā You watch the way Rivers bounces around the practice field, and you definitely get the feeling he hasnāt lost that, even if doesnāt want to do this forever. The Rams Try to Stay Ahead of the Curve Thereās a lot going on at Rams camp. You have the Aaron Donald holdout. The offseason haul of Ndamukong Suh, Marcus Peters, Aqib Talib and Brandin Cooks. Year 2 for Sean McVay in L.A. Year 3 for Jared Goff in the NFL. Todd Gurley coming off an Offensive Player of the Year season, and signed to a massive contract extension. Expectations are highāand on the day I was in Irvine, those expectations looked justified in the efficient, high-energy, quick-paced practice McVay and his staff ran. At least for nowāand no oneās lost a game yetāthe Rams looked hyper-organized and effectively blended together. But what struck me was how the team was focused on getting ahead of potential potholes. Here are three I think worth looking at ā¦
Chris Williams/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images ā¢ First, there was a real acknowledgement that the players may have caught some teams off-guard last year with McVayās innovations on offense. Goff mentioned to me that all the motion and formationing and movement in the scheme crossed defenses up last year. He expects the teams on the Ramsā 2018 schedule to be more prepared this time around. Which means itās on McVay, Goff and company to keep it moving. āThe tapeās out there,ā GoffĀ āThatās number one. Number two, weāve evolved. Weāve tried to implement new stuff. This guyās pretty smart over here , and heās come up with some good stuff. And weāve got some new wrinkles that should give teams fits. That starts with him, the dialogue he has with all the other coaches, and then with us giving him feedback on what weāre seeing, heās very, very good in listening to us. āHeāll listen to anybody, and any sort of feedback we can give him he loves. I thought last year we were always evolving as the season went on. It felt like teams were always one week behind on what we were doing offensively.ā ā¢ Second, and this plays off that notion, McVay hasnāt wasted time to troubleshoot anything he can. It may be picking up something to evolve the offense one day, and picking up something else to maintain the culture heās established the next. To that end heās tapped into new relationships with people like Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Celtics coach Brad Stevens and L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti to try to continue to innovate. And from all that networking, McVay says the best advice heās gotten is, āThereās power in saying, āI donāt knowā, and letās figure out a way to collaborate together and find the best approach for our players, and for our team. And fortunately youāre in a situation where you have a lot of people you can lean on. You feel so fortunate to be surrounded by our coaching staff, with a lot of veteran coaches that have done a great job, that have been through experiences that I just havenāt been through.ā ā¢ Third, thereās clearly confidence here. You can see it in the way McVay carries himself on the field, and the way his coaches are teaching and correcting on the fly, and in how the players are competing. GM Les Snead told me the difference between last year and this year, is evident in that belief ā āWhat we earned last year, which Sean couldnāt give in a team meeting or with a great speech, is confidence.ā And all the same, McVayās monitoring it. āWeāve talked about itāāLike the confidence, like the swagger, but make sure it doesnāt border on arrogance,āā McVay said. āItās understanding you have to earn that confidence every day. Previous success helps you have that confidence, but also continuing to work. We talk about it every single day. Our whole process is committed to that daily improvement, getting one percent better.ā Of course, every team that comes off a playoff year and has an aggressive offseason like the Rams did is going to feel good in August. And plenty fail to live up to expectations. Which, give them credit, is something these guys seem pretty aware of. ā¢Ā THE MMQBāS TRAINING CAMP REPORTS: BroncosĀ |Ā SteelersĀ |Ā EaglesĀ |Ā ColtsĀ |Ā RavensĀ |Ā More Baker, the Browns and the Aaron Rodgers Model I always have a hard time believing teams when they draft a quarterback in the first round, then say that they plan to redshirt him. The ideaātaking pressure off the kid, giving him time to learn, etc.āsounds good. It almost never gets carried out. Iāve used this stat here before: From 2008 to ā17, 27 QBs went in the first round. Only two, Tennesseeās Jake Locker and Kansas Cityās Patrick Mahomes, werenāt eventually given the job as rookies. So the Browns saying that Tyrod Taylor is their starting quarterback is one thing. Actually keeping Baker Mayfield on the bench is another. But after visiting Berea this week, I have a little bit of a better understanding why both coach Hue Jackson and G.M. John Dorsey have been so steadfast about that stance. For Jackson, it starts with the experience he had starting Cody Kessler as a rookie in 2016, and DeShone Kizer last year.
Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images āIāve had two players here in the past whoād never played in the National Football League, and we put them out there,ā Jackson told me. āThat didnāt do anybody any good. So why take a guy who we know is going to be our future and put him in that situation? We understand how hard it is to play in this league, how much you need to know, what your supporting cast has to be for you to have success. āWhy put him in a situation where maybe he wouldnāt flourish? That would make no sense.ā At that point, I brought up to Jackson his experience coaching Andy Dalton, a Year 1, Week 1 starter who made the playoffs his in first five years in Cincinnati (though Jackson didnāt get back to Cincinnati until Daltonās second year). The Browns coach nodded and reminded me he was also the Ravens quarterbacks coach in 2008, the year Joe Flacco got Baltimore to the AFC title game as a rookie. This, as he sees it, is a different situation. The team he has now carries the baggage of 1-31 with it, and Mayfield is the fifth quarterback taken in the first round in the New Browns era, following Tim Couch, Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden and Johnny Manziel. āItās the makeup of the team,ā Jackson said. āWhen I was in Baltimore, youāre talking about Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs and all those guys on defenseāthat was a different team. Here, quarterbackās gotta drive the train right now. Letās be honest about where weāre coming from. Thatās a lot of pressure, a lot of things would have to go right for him. So why do that, why force that?ā And then thereās Dorseyās experience. He drafted Mahomes last year with the intention of sitting him. Dorsey was in Green Bay for the three years Aaron Rodgers spent sitting and waiting for his time. So he can paint a picture of the benefitāand he did for me, raising a hypothetical where a safety creeping into the box can force a quarterback to adjust in a split second, and throw out his best-laid plan on the fly. āAaron actually demonstrated that when he got in there, that he could do that. He couldnāt do that his rookie year,ā Dorsey said. āUnderstand the speed of the game, it slows down for you. You understand the concepts the defense is trying to run into you. Heās under new terminology. It takes time to digest that type of information.ā Only time will tell if the Browns stick to their guns on this one. For now, and through a week of camp, they havenāt budged much, even as Mayfieldās play has improved. āWe needed somebody to come in our locker room whoās been an NFL player, whoās won games, who understands what weāre trying to accomplish right now, today, and start to lead this organization away from where weāve been,ā Jackson said. āWe got the right guy in Tyrod. We drafted the right guy for the future of the organization, thereās no question in my mind about that.ā ā¦ OF THE WEEK TWEET
Had a moment with #Rams defensive coordinator @sonofbum today. Me: āCāmon, I know youāre not really playing Fortnite.ā Wade (deadpan): āHey look, Iāve got a good squad.ā
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ā Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) July 29, 2018 I honestly wish I saw this tweet before I saw Wade Phillips on Wednesday, because this basically confirms that the Ramsā DC, at 71, is more with it than I am, at 38. QUOTE āWhen I played, crime went lower in Baltimore. Itās like nobody needs to be mad now. Itās like everybody wants to be happy and celebrate.ā ā new Hall of Famer Ray Lewis. Look, I donāt want people to think our site is picking on the guy (ICYMI: Our man Robert Klemko wrote insightfully on Lewis the other day). But this isnāt the first time that Lewis has placed the NFL in society as a crime-fighting force. And here Iāve been thinking we all just get to cover a kidās game. CLIP
If this is a personal foul they need to erase the safety position pic.twitter.com/vBvak4AojK
ā Jac Collinsworth (@JacCollinsworth) August 3, 2018 More on this in a minute. MEME
The NFL next season if theses tackle rules stay the same. pic.twitter.com/A0PeZ8KpsZ
ā Cole Thompson (@MrColeThompson) August 3, 2018 Like I said ā¦ weāll get to the helmet rule in the Takeaways. S/O to ā¦ The Jets for giving 6-year-old cancer survivor Gio Toribio a moment he wonāt soon forget ā Toribio took a handoff from Josh McCown and went 50 yards for a touchdown at Saturday nightās annual Green and White Scrimmage at Rutgers. Toribio was diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago, at 4 years old, and declared cancer free in 2017, a few months before he met Jets linebacker Darron Lee. The two have grown close, and thatās facilitated a growing relationship between the young fan and his favorite team. As for the touchdown meant to Lee, after the scrimmage, he said, āIt meant everything. Everythingās been through, heās the ultimate warrior in my eyes. Like I told everyone before, heās my hero.ā My wife works in cardiac ICU at Boston Childrenās, and so Iāve heard first hand what these sorts of uplifting experiences can mean for kids who are going through incredibly difficult times. So credit to the Jets, and Lee, for providing Gio with one.
Heās a cancer survivor. And now Gioās going the distance on the field, too. What a run! #GioStrong pic.twitter.com/ellgkINxDu
ā New York Jets (@nyjets) August 5, 2018 OFF-FIELD ISSUES 1. Because Iām pretty vocal about my alma mater, Iāve been asked plenty about whatās going on at Ohio State this week. And Iād say thisāI hope my school is as thorough as possible, gets to the truth and reacts by doing the right thing. It should go without saying that getting to that point over the next week or two should be a bigger deal for everyone involved than winning football games. 2. Iāve learned from covering the NFL that itās best to be patient and wait for facts before coming to conclusions in domestic violence cases. I think we all underreacted in the Josh Brown case two years ago, and then his ex-wifeās journal came to light. Conversely, a lot of conclusions were drawn in the Rueben Foster situation before they should have been. We knew way more about Greg Hardy and Ray Rice months down the line than we did initially. All evidence that making immediate sweeping judgments is probably a bad call. 3. I donāt blame the Nationals for gauging the market for star outfielder Bryce Harper. Theyāre hovering around .500 and stand to lose him for nothing after the season, and he has an agent who takes everyone to the market. Even if heās a 26-year-old ubertalent whom you should probably just hand a blank check to. 4. Iāll admit it. I think Very Cavallari is hilarious, and Iāve missed it the last couple weeks on the road. That show is exactly what FOX saw in Jay Cutler, and the Cutler you see when his guard is down. Hereās a text I got from one of his old coaches got while I was watching it a couple weeks ago: āI told Cutty heās going to be a way bigger star than Kristin! Thatās who he is every day.ā 5. In a weird way, I bet the NFL is kind of hopeful that LeBron James has become Donald Trumpās new piƱata to swing at. For obvious reasons. TEN TAKEAWAYS 1. Weāre going to have more on the Niners next week (I think), but since I did spend Sunday there I figured itād be worth passing along something from their camp. And while I was there, I couldnāt help but remember how misunderstood I felt Kyle Shanahan was a few years ago, which is why I did a story with him on in in 2016. āI donāt think a lot of people know me,ā he said then. āThere are misconceptions. I know itās not all great. But I canāt control it.ā Amazing how quickly those have melted away. The culture in San Francisco couldnāt be much better than it is, which has a lot to do with the partnership between Shanahan and G.M. John Lynch. Itās also why Lynch believes his team is ready to handle expectations well beyond those of most 6-10 teams. āOne of Kyleās great strengths is that heās honest with these guys,ā Lynch told me. āWhat you put on tape is going to be talked about. Heās not dressing guys down. When theyāre doing well, heāll praise them and show why theyāre doing well, and use it as education. When they need to pick it up, heās very effective at doing that. Itās authentic and itās real. Not that you need to knock them down, but he does a real effective job of keep things real.ā Truth is, through some tough times, Shanahanās always been himself. And thatās benefitting him now. 2. I know you guys love the intel on rookies. So hereās some underground info I picked up talking to coaches and personnel people at the six camps I was at this week. The Browns are convinced their first four picks (Mayfield, Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb, Austin Corbett) are direct hits, but the guy to watch might be fifth-round linebacker Genard Henry. Heard more than one person call him a āb---hā for the offense to deal with, in a good way for the defense. ā¦ Colts sixth-rounder Deon Cain has been spectacular. Some off-field issues, and a subpar 2017, caused him to fall, but thereās an internal belief heās a second-round talentāand itās shown so far. ā¦ Rams third-round OT Joe Noteboom is already in the mix for playing time at guard and tackle, as is fifth-round LB Micah Kiser. ā¦ Chargers fourth-rounder Kyzir White played safety at West Virginia, but L.A. drafted him to play linebacker, and heās since looked like an ideal athletic fit in Gus Bradleyās defense, while putting on about 10 to 15 pounds of solid weight. ā¦ Cowboys second-rounder Connor Williams has taken all first-team snaps from the day he arrived at right guard, and third-round receiver Michael Gallup has flashed his potential, but fourth-round DE Dorance Armstrong has been the real revelation through the first week of camp, positioning himself for a role in September. ā¦ Niners second-round pick Dante Pettis will contribute right away in the return game. The acumen for football and natural intelligence heās shown (FWIW, he had a high Wonderlic score) is giving him a shot to carve out a serious role on offense too. 3. OK, so now to the helmet rule. From what I heard, the Ravens believed two of the three calls against them were officiated correctly, with the outlier being the one against Bennett Jackson that we showed you (via Jac Collinsworth) above. The Bears coaches, for their part, were expecting more calls as the officials work their way through the new ruleāand didnāt get a good look at the kind thatāll occur inside the tackle box, which they believe are going to be the drive killers/starters to result from the change. And the concern for staffs coming out of the Hall of Fame Game is that itās hard for the officials to call the rule in real time, which leads to fear on their part that theyāll miss violations and get downgraded. Weāll see what kind of feedback the league gives Baltimore and Chicago this week. 4. A sign of how good the Eagles feel about EVP Howie Roseman and coach Doug Pederson: Those extensions through 2022 werenāt really extensions at all. Philly did new five-year deals with two, which is a nod to the job theyāve done in building a championship outfit over the last 31 months. 5. I think analytics are a very useful tool for NFL teams, but Corey Colemanās failure to make any dent in Cleveland is probably a good example of relying too much on numbers. He ran a sub-4.4 40 at his pro day, and was incredibly productive at Baylorāhe notched 74 catches for 1,363 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2015. It was a priority for Cleveland to find guys who could get in the end zone, and Coleman clearly showed he could in Waco. But on the flip side, there were questions about his football IQ coming out of a simple offense, and his route-running ability, and thatās why there are more than a couple teams that arenāt very surprised at how his time in Cleveland ended, with Sundayās trade to Buffalo for a bag of pylons. ā¢Ā TEAM PREVIEWS: ANDY BENOITāS 10 THOUGHTS ONĀ ...Ā The BearsĀ |Ā BucsĀ |Ā TexansĀ |Ā GiantsĀ |Ā More 6. One other thing to take from Cowboys camp: Ezekiel Elliottās in a very different place than he was before. Watching him move in drills, it was clear he had more of a hop in his step than we saw last year. And when I asked Zack Martin about it, he didnāt want to compare this year to last, but said he absolutely sees an edge to the Elliott of 2018. āIt has jumped off the tape how he's been practicing, Martin told me. āHe's been kind of a quiet professional, maybe more than normal this year, like heās on a mission. Shoot, he went through so much last year, and I can't imagine how that was, all that weight on his shoulders. So he's coming in determined this year to get after it and have a big year.ā 7. I wouldnāt be totally shocked if Paxton Lynch isnāt a Bronco by the end of the summer. When I was turning over rocks before the draft, word was that the team would have viewed each of the four quarterbacks at the top as an upgrade over Lynch, their 2016 first-rounder, even if they didnāt see all of them as worthy of the fifth pick (I believe Sam Darnold is the only one they would have considered). To me, thatās a sign that theyāve recognized their mistake. And so if 2017 seventh-rounder Chad Kelly, who was injured last year, continues to show progress, there could be a decision to make there. 8. Full disclosure: I still havenāt gotten to watch the Hall of Fame speeches, since I was with the Cowboys until late on Saturday, then flew to San Jose to see the Niners Sunday morning, then drove to the Raiders camp in Napa after that. But one thing that caught my attention: Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft making the trip to see Randy Moss go in. Before Moss got to New England, I always thought he was a guy who got by on raw ability, which would make him a funny fit as a Patriot. And I remember after he arrivedāI was a Patriots beat writer at the timeāhow Belichick kept explaining how intelligent and evolved Moss was as a player. Proof positive was how Belichick and Josh McDaniels moved Moss around. Itās very difficult to learn one receiver position in that offense. If you can get them all down, youāre pretty sharp. And Moss was. 9. Iāve continued to get great feedback on how Odell Beckham has carried himself at training camp. He looks healthy to the staff and is on board with Pat Shurmurās program. Doing a contract will, to be sure, be challenging. The team could make the argument that it has him at about $45 million (his fifth-year option, plus two franchise tags) over the next three years, while he can point to the exploding receiver market (his draft classmates Sammy Watkins and Brandin Cooks are both making $16 million per) and ask for a lot more. Thatās why the good feeling between the new Giants regime and Beckham is, at least, a necessary starting point as the sides seek a middle ground. 10. Johnny Manziel deserves a lot of credit for doing what a lot of other quarterbacks have refused to, in going to Canada to try and pump life into his career. And Iām not giving up on him yet. But that was pretty ugly the other night. FIVE-DAY FORECAST Weāve got a full slate this weekend! And like you guys, Iām looking forward to seeing the first-round quarterbacks go. So all eyes will be on MetLife Stadium, as Mayfield and the Browns will visit the Giants on Thursday night, and Sam Darnold and the Jets host the Falcons on Friday night. Meanwhile, Josh Allen and the Bills get the Panthers at home on Thursday, and Josh Rosen and the Cardinals host the Chargers on Saturday. And we get a second look at Lamar Jackson on Thursday with the Rams wrapping up a week in Baltimore. What do you want to watch? In each case, itāll be interesting to see if the coaches get the first-year guys reps with the 1s. That can be a tell that theyāre at least toying with the idea of starting the rookie right awayāand we know that three of the five teams (Jets, Cardinals, Bills) have been open about the idea of doing that. And hereās a stat to file away: The last time there wasnāt a rookie quarterback starting in Week 1 of a season was 2007. That was the year JaMarcus Russell went first overall. See you guys next week. Question or comment? Email us at [email protected]. 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