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Friday night was a big night for the NFL as there were five preseason games, let’s do some analysis on each game and give a takeaway for each team during these games. First we’ll start with the Browns and Jaguars game.

    Browns vs Jaguars

Let’s start with the Jaguars as my biggest takeaway was how good running back Travis Etienne played, he did not blow any socks off but you can see why the star running back was taken in the first round a year ago. Etienne didn’t have crazy stats by any means but you could just tell by his speed, quickness and explosiveness, Travis finished with nine carries for 23 yards and a 10 yard catch. For the Cleveland Browns you gotta go with Deshaun Watson, this was Watson’s first game in over two seasons and Watson did look very rusty, overthrowing players left and right. 

    Lions vs Falcons

We got to see 2nd overall pick Aidan Hutchinson play his first full series in the NFL. Hutchinson played well in his limited snaps on Friday with a tackle for loss, and two total tackles which doesn’t seem like alot but Aidan made himself feel present which is what you want in your star edge rusher. For the Falcons the quarterbacks were the takeaway in the fact that both Marcus Mariota and rookie Desmond Ridder both made the most of their limited snaps. Mariota finished 2-2 passing and 23 rushing yards and Ridder finished with 10-22 for 77 yards and two touchdowns to go with it.  

    Eagles vs Jets

    Jalen Hurts showed the doubters that he can throw, Hurts had pretty much the perfect game finishing with a perfect 6-6 passing for 80 yards and a touchdown to go with it. For the Jets it looks like the team could be in trouble once again with injuries this season as quarterback Zach Wilson injured his knee and is set to have a MRI on saturday, but the good news for the Jets is their defense looked stout as it should be considering head coach Robert Salah is a defensive minded coach. 

    Bengals vs Cardinals 

    The Cardinals are looking more and more dysfunctional by the day as Kyler Murray and Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury were arguing as Kingsbury had Murray call offensive plays for a full series which led to -8 yards on a 3 and out. The Bengals didn’t have much to be excited about as none of the starters did not play much at all, but Kicker Evan McPherson showed out once again with long field goals of 58, 56 and 23 yards away. 

    49ers vs Packers

For the Packers Jordan Love once again had his ups and downs once again making big plays to standout wide receiver Romeo Dobbs but Love did finish with three interceptions. Love overall played well but needs to continue roughing out his “edges” as a player. As for the 49ers starting quarterback Trey Lance showed out pretty well making big plays throwing it all over the field but clearly still has work to do, the standout play for Lance was a deep sideline throw to rookie wideout Danny Gray for 76 yards and a touchdown on the play.

Thursday was the first set of preseason games for the NFL and we had the pleasure to see four teams in action. Let’s break down what we saw from each team and what we can take away from the games.

        Giants vs Patriots 

        We got to the first look at the Patriots without OC Josh McDaniels, and while the offense didn’t look half bad with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge you can’t take much away as it’s only the preseason. Mac Jones did play but only for a limited snaps, but the Pats defense did play a good amount in the first half. Lastly the Patriots might have found a gem in second round receiver Tyquan Thornton.

        Now for the Giants we also got to see a first look at the Daboll and Jones pairing, and while it looked pretty good the Giants main issue has always been the offensive line for the last half decade. Jones went 6-10 with no touchdowns or interceptions but the offense did look good against the Patriots’ first team defense.

        Ravens vs Titans 

        First for the Titans, third round pick Malik Willis looked stout in his overall performance as the Titans quarterback, Malik did have his ups and downs like any other player in the preseason thus far but after starting 0-3 on passes Willis turned it around finishing 6-11 with 107 yards with no touchdowns or picks. 

The Ravens on the other hand had some standouts like first round pick Kyle Hamilton who showed out in his time on the field making plays. The Ravens did see some backlash for drafting a punter (Matt Ariaza) so high (4th round) but turns out the guy can really play.

Kareem Hunt has been a great running back in the NFL for a couple years now and is ready to get back to a starting role in a team’s offense. Hunt was originally drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017 and quickly flourished to a top running back in the league, in his rookie season Hunt accumulated over 1,300 rushing yards, 8 rushing touchdowns and over 1,700 yards from scrimmage. In 2017 Kareem also received a trip to the pro bowl and he finished second in rookie of the year behind Saints running back Alvin Kamara. 

    Hunt found himself in trouble off the field in 2018 which led to Hunt getting released by the Chiefs in 2018 and receiving a multi game suspension. Shortly after the releasing Kareem got an offer to be the backup behind Nick Chubb of the Cleveland Browns and has since been just that but Hunt is still balling out even with being a backup. In his three years of being a backup to Nick Chubb, Hunt has accumulated over 1,400 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns in three years. Even though those numbers aren’t huge Kareem’s yards per carry are just as good as when he entered the league many years ago and I still believe Hunt still has a couple great years left in him for a starting gig for a playoff team. 

Kareem Hunt did ask the Cleveland Browns for a contract extension a couple days ago but the organization denied Hunt’s request, Hunt since then has asked for a trade and was also denied of that as well so now Kareem is doing the now popular hold in which you see many players doing nowadays.

This will be the final series I’ll be doing before the NFL season starts and we will feature every NFL team’s best offensive and defensive player. We will go into a deep dive of why I picked the player and why. We’ll start with the AFC and eventually get to the NFC.

Miami Dolphins

    Offense: Tyreek Hill is gotta be the best player on offense for the Miami Dolphins as of today, Tyreek is considered to be a top five to eight wide receiver in this league, the other player that might come to peoples minds as the top player on offense for Miami is Tyrron Armstead but with his lack of consistency because of injuries Armstead isn’t what he used to be which was a top three left tackle in this league. Hill just has that explosiveness and speed to completely change a game in one play. 

Defense: Xavien Howard is definitely the best Dolphins player on defense, Miami was considered to be a top five defensive team in these last few years but with the subtraction of some players and head coach Brian Flores this defense won’t be nearly as good plus who can you argue is a better defensive player than cornerback Xavien Howard on that team? Pretty much nobody.

This will be the final series I’ll be doing before the NFL season starts and we will feature every NFL team’s best offensive and defensive player. We will go into a deep dive of why I picked the player and why. We’ll start with the AFC and eventually get to the NFC.

Buffalo Bills

Offense: Obviously Josh Allen is the best player on offense and that’s not particularly close, the Bills starting quarterback is considered to be a top three to top five player at his position and some would put him at number two behind Patrick Mahomes if you’re starting a franchise today. Now some would say why not Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs but Diggs isn’t a top five receiver in the league right now, most would consider Diggs to be top ten but not top five. 

Defense: Tre’davious White would be my pick for the Bills top defender and unlike the offensive side it’s much closer between White and new Bills edge rusher Von Miller who’s still considered a top five to eight pass rusher in this league but White is considered higher than that when it comes to cornerbacks, White is considered to be a top five corner easily in this league.

With the annual NFL Hall of Fame game taking part in Canton Ohio once again we had two interesting teams play, the Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars. With both teams not playing many starters it was basically just another preseason game like it is every year. Let’s talk about my three biggest takeaways from opening night in the NFL for both teams.

    Takeaway #1: We finally get to see the new era’s begin in Jacksonville and Las Vegas with new head coaches Doug Pederson and Josh McDaniels. Now there’s not much to take away from either of these teams but we got to see a first look at their schemes each coach would like to run for their respective teams. McDaniels for the Raiders did actually play a few starters which was surprising like Josh Jacobs and some offensive lineman. 

    Takeaway #2: Travon Walker had a great rookie opening game, rookie and number one overall pick of the 2022 draft class Travon Walker did well in his first game with recording a sack and a few pressures within his limited snaps in the game, some around the media are thinking Walker could have a Micah Parsons type of impact on this Jacksonville defense which is plausible but also a very high bar to hit in his rookie year.

Takeaway #3: Even though this game didn’t really have any starters playing, both teams looked to be part of what the score would be if the starters were playing, about a 15 point difference. The Raiders system with Josh McDaniels looked sorta like the patriot way as McDaniels is going to run multiple tight ends in his scheme like in New England.

Recently since NFL training camp has started new stories have been breaking left and right with it be new team signings, players getting in trouble, player injuries or suspensions the NFL has been great for news which means the season is right around the corner. 

Cardinals new wide receiver Marquise Brown was arrested Wednesday morning for “criminal” speeding, Brown was let go on bail but this isn’t a great start to his Cardinals career, especially when he’s looking for a new deal. 

The NFLPA is appealing Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshuan Watson’s six game suspension and everyone assumes it will be a longer suspension once the NFLPA decides. 

The Dallas Cowboys are signing ex-Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr to a one year $3 million dollar deal.  

Covid 19 has struck both Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray and Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll but both don’t miss too much time.

Every season for the NFL we have training camps and there’s always a team that just has horrible injury luck, so let’s look at the teams thus far that have had key injuries that might affect their season. 

    Denver Broncos- Tim Patrick and Damarea Crockett will miss the season with ACL injuries. 

    Dallas Cowboys- James Washington will miss 6-10 weeks with a foot injury, Micheal Gallup will miss the start of the season with his ACL injury from last season.

    Minnesota Vikings- Irv Smith will undergo thumb surgery, not completely ruled out for season opener. Dalvin Cook, Alexander Mattison both having hand injuries, both should be fine. 

    Los Angeles Rams- Van Jefferson to undergo minor knee surgery will miss a couple of weeks.

    Tampa Bay Buccaneers- Ryan Jensen will likely miss season with knee injury, Tristan Wirfs carted off field with injury. 

    Buffalo Bills- Jordan Poyer hyperextended elbow, to miss a few weeks. 

    Cleveland Browns- Amari Cooper exited practice after suffering an ankle injury

    Atlanta Falcons- Vincent Taylor will miss the entire season after rupturing achilles. 

    Kansas City Chiefs- Skyy Moore injured his hip. 

    New Orleans Saints- Smoke Monday suffered a significant knee injury. 

    New York Jets- Michael Carter injured his ankle. 

Pittsburgh Steelers- Minkah Fitzpatrick injured his wrist, Chase Claypool injured his shoulder, both should be fine for week 1.

After a long anticipated wait Cleveland Browns new quarterback Deshaun Watson has finally received his long awaited suspension but there’s a catch. NFL’s associate judge Sue L. Robinson gave Deshaun Watson a six game suspension

 Once the suspension was made public rather quickly, once the news broke to the public all hell broke loose on social media with many fans and media members quite outraged on how little the suspension was. Most fans that were talking about it were comparing Watson’s suspension to Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley’s one full season suspension for gambling on a Falcons game while not on the active roster saying “it’s egregious” or “utter nonsense” that Ridley’s suspension was three times as long as Watson’s suspension

Now Watson hasnt been found guilty to any of his twent four sexual misconduct allegations. That’s why the suspension is only six games but thankfully for Deshuan he was able to settle twenty of the twenty four allegations against him. 

With every NFL personality talking about the Deshaun Watson suspension many of those same members suspect Watson’s suspension to be longer once the NFL players association and NFL commissioner Roger Goddell step in. The NFLPA has three days to decide on what Watson’s future will look like and many suspect it to be at least eight games to a full season long.

San Francisco finally gets their guy back in Deebo Samuel, the superstar wideout is getting a massive payday, a 3 year $73.5 million dollar contract with $58.1 million guaranteed. It was very likely that once Seattle Seahawks wide receiver D.K Metcalf got his contract that laid out the groundwork for the 49ers and Deebo to work off of the fresh contract D.K got from Seattle. 

    The 49ers had to get this deal done with Deebo as he’s arguably their most valuable piece on offense and maybe the whole team. With deebo being such a phenomenal player the 49ers couldn’t give him up or even let him sit out for the season, Samuel did request a trade in the beginning of the offseason and it was looking like San Francisco was going to trade him and the niners did take calls on the superstar player but the 49ers didn’t get what they were looking for in draft compensation. 

    Throughout the offseason Deebo did make it known he didn’t want to play for the niners but that was just getting leverage for Deebo to make the team cave to pay him what he wanted, Deebo will now be a free agent when he’s 30 and can potentially get another massive deal. 

Deebo’s contract was just a sign of what he did on the field in 2021 with him having a massive breakout year with a pro bowl selection, the fist wide receiver to have over 6 rushing and receiving touchdowns in one season, Deebo was also top 3 in the league for most total yards from scrimmage with over 1,800. The only knock on Deebo is he’s missed just under 33% of games in his short three year career.