FMIA: Chargers’ Pace and Space Strategy; Seahawks’ Legion of Boom Returns

A week of the unexpected at the end of the training-camp trip:

Dianna Russini did what?!

Kyle Shanahan did what?!

The Cowboys did what?!

Juwan Johnson—you want me to be sure to pick him in fantasy? First tell me who he is!

Bijan Robinson—you want me to bypass him in fantasy? What?!

Sean Payton, slow-playing expectations for once. What?!

Roger Goodell took the family to what?!

Dan Pompei wrote what?!

Rye, Seahawks team dog, is Heir of the Week. A chocolate lab, romping all over the pristine Seahawks practice fields. What?!

Brandon Staley has spent time with Golden State basketball coach Steve Kerr. He admires Kerr a lot. And Staley thinks there’s one significant commonality between a basketball star like Steph Curry and a quarterback. They’ve got a big edge when putting pressure on the defense. Kerr explained to Staley: When a defense can get set for Curry, there’s a lot of different ways the defense can take him out of the game. Then we’re grinding every possession, and it’s an 83-79 game. When we don’t let a defense get set, we can be in a free-flowing state. We can pressure the defense. We can dictate.

When Staley and Moore started talking about this job—the Chargers dismissed offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi after last season, figuring he hadn’t maximized their weaponry—they agreed on lots of things, including the pressure-the-defense-through-tempo stuff. But that isn’t to say the Chargers will be all speed, all the time. They just want to have the ability to run the offense at tempo when they want, when they think it fits either in the gameplan or to tire out a defense.

Pace and Space. Playing fast, finding holes in the defense on every play—by giving Herbert the toolbox with multiple plays in it and allowing him to make the decisions in seconds while the defense, the Chargers hope, will be on its heels a bit.

“When we talked,” Staley said, “we were like, ‘How can we take this concept of pace and space and like be able to run our entire offense that way?’ Like, no matter what time of the game. First quarter. Second quarter. Two-minute. Whenever. Challenge the defense’s ability to communicate, to substitute.”

Staley never doubted Herbert’s ability to process quickly, even with the newness of Moore’s imported schemes. Moore had to see it, though.

“You see all the physical tools that Justin has from afar,” Moore said. “Then there’s the element of once you start teaming up from a football intelligence standpoint, from a big-picture standpoint, how much can he handle? That’s the stuff that’s blowing me away—how much volume he can handle, and how fast he masters it.”

In practice, what I noticed about Herbert—the Chargers were going against the Saints on this day—is how comfortable he was, and how the entire offense looked like this was their third year under Moore, not the first summer. “Very comfortable,” Herbert said post-practice when I asked about meshing with Moore. You saw it in the huddle, at the line, and in quick confabs with Moore. Now, Herbert’s the kind of coachable guy who’d make it work if the custodian were his coach. But with Moore and position coach Doug Nussmeier, Herbert looks and sounds like he’s in the best place he’s been in during his young pro career.

I found it interesting that when Staley went looking for a coordinator after the season, he didn’t want a hired gun who’d come in with his own system and scheme and with the attitude, It’s my offense, coach. Out of the way. I’ll take it from here. Staley has always admired Moore. First as an undersized and very smart player, with a 50-3 record as Boise State’s quarterback. Second, as the son of a high school coach, Moore would likely be a good teacher. Moore’s dad recalls Kellen, in middle school, coming to the high school football practice and drawing plays in a notebook.

Plus, Staley loved Moore’s rep as a low-ego team guy—because that’s exactly what the quarterback is. When I told Herbert that the precedent-setting $262 million contract he just signed doesn’t seem to have changed him, he brightened and said, “My father will be very happy to hear that.”

So now the Chargers just have to cut into that scoring gap with Super Bowl champion Kansas City atop the AFC West. 2023 points scored: KC 496, LA 391. That’s a touchdown a game the Chargers have to make up. They drafted TCU wideout Quentin Johnston in the first round to help, but Herbert will wear out Keenan Allen and Mike Williams as long as they can stay healthy. No team in the stacked AFC West has the star-receiver depth of Allen, Williams and Johnson, with a top all-around back like Austin Ekeler. It’ll be surprising if the Chargers are anywhere near 13^th in scoring this year.

Two final points. Those examples I gave you up top? They say to me that Herbert’s gotten better at one of the most important, and underrated, parts of playing the position. That’s manipulating the defense. He knows how to use the freedom of the toolbox Moore and Staley have handed him.

But the biggest issue the Chargers may face is their conference. Look at the teams with top-flight quarterbacks in the AFC, and you understand that when the musical chairs stop, two to four strong teams will be home for the playoffs. It’s asking a lot of Herbert to make the Chargers 100 points better, but that could be what he’ll have to do to get this franchise to important January football again.

Biggest surprise of the week: Niners throw away Trey Lance.

Second-biggest surprise of the week: Dianna Russini, 40, a TV person, leaves ESPN for a writing site, The Athletic … and she immediately becomes one of the highest-paid writers in the history of the August New York Times company. (The Times owns The Athletic.)

“On paper,” Russini said Friday, “it’s like wait, she just left the worldwide leader? The biggest sports network on the planet? For The Athletic? I think when you read that headline, the reasoning honestly isn’t there.”

This move doesn’t make traditional journalism sense. To think Dianna Russini will almost certainly make more money than Maggie Haberman or David Brooks—Times legends—and, crazily, might earn more than them combined, is a sign of the strange sports journalism times we live in. Stars who cover the NFL make crazy salaries compared to the money people make covering news that truly matters.

The Athletic hired Russini to be different, to be a subscription magnet, to tell good stories, to be a difference-maker on the NFL beat, and to break some stories. (Not a lot, but some. You’re not beating Schefter, Rapoport, Glazer, Pelissero with any regularity in this business right now.) The Athletic wants to be profitable soon, and the way to try to do that is to take chances. This is a chance. Russini’s rep at ESPN was as a football firebrand and good beat reporter with a growing list of sources. Tireless, tough, lover of the game. Her new employer needs American sports fans to buy Russini, and her traits.

“Buy” being the key word. With all the free content of NFL stuff flooding the web, will the Russini brand translate into current non-subscribers of The Athletic paying $71.99 a year to read this smart paysite? It’s a big ask. Very big. But it’s a gamble The Athletic was willing to take for a rising media person ESPN wasn’t willing to pay like a major star.

ESPN is scaling down, as you’ve seen. After paying stars like Adam Schefter, Adrian Wojnarowski, Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee, it’s clear ESPN had a bottom line—and wasn’t willing to put Russini’s compensation far above, if above at all, that of prized NFL reporters like Jeff Darlington and Sal Paolantonio.

Everyone wants to be wanted. In the end, that’s part of why Russini jumped ship.

“I did walk away,” she said. “It wasn’t a situation where ESPN didn’t want me. I love ESPN. They’ve given me so much opportunity and the people I’ve worked with were incredible. It was a really difficult decision for me, for my family. But it really came down to recognizing at ESPN I wasn’t going to change roles. There was no elevation there for me based on my conversations with the company. They did not have a vision outside of what I currently do. The Athletic, through conversations I had with all the people in charge, just has an endless amount of roles and ideas for me. They want information. They want a storyteller. They want someone with personality. Once I realized they were pretty much handing me over a blank sheet of paper that basically just said go be who you want to be, I realized that this could change my life. The Athletic showed that they value me more than ESPN, for sure.”

Two other points. Russini has retained her television rights. So sometime soon (likely next year, but one never knows) you’ll see her on the sidelines or in the studio of an NFL rights-holder. “I’m a TV free agent for the first time in a while, and that was the gem in all of this,” she said. And regarding being a sportswriter: “Challenging, exciting, scary,” she said. “But words are words no matter where they live. Collecting information and telling stories still will be at my core.”

Russini’s in a business where information and stories are kings. She can do that. She shouldn’t have to worry about being Faulkner, or Deford. She needs to get the information and put it out in a straight, declarative way. Stories rule.

“Before I made the decision,” said Russini, a north Jersey person, “I had my parents come over. I never made any big decisions without their guidance. My dad’s a plumber. He knows nothing about the world of television. My mom is a former nurse. And my husband—all three of them, when I laid it out, they said, ‘Bet on you. Bet on you.’”

I don’t like San Francisco dealing Trey Lance for a fourth-round pick—likely, a very late fourth-round pick. I understand why it happened; the Niners get a breath of fresh air without the ignominy of a horrible 2021 draft trade and pick hanging over their heads during what they think could be a championship season. They get to move on and drive for a Super Bowl without the black cloud of the Lance failure hanging over their heads. But -- and this is a gigantic but -- I wrote last week that Kyle Shanahan has had to use three quarterbacks due to injury in four of his six years as coach. This trade means he’s more comfortable with the three of Brock Purdy, Sam Darnold and Brandon Allen (2-7 with 56.7 percent accuracy in four seasons) than Purdy, Darnold and Lance. I really don’t get that.

Shanahan and GM John Lynch both said with Lance losing out to Darnold for the backup job, there wasn’t going to be a chance for Lance to practice or play much at all. Why? Why can’t a smart coach, knowing Lance’s unique situation, figure a way to get him some experience, mostly in practice but who knows? Maybe during games depending on the situation. Jimmy Garoppolo practicing on a side field a year ago at this time wasn’t ideal either. But one thing Kyle Shanahan’s been good at in his six years coaching this team is juggling quarterbacks. He could have done it here—and should have. You do not throw away something you believed in so strongly just two years ago. And make no mistake: The Niners can crow about being surprised they got a fourth-round pick for Lance. But it’s a terrible return, even for this damaged used car. The Cowboys have drafted 129^th in the fourth round of the last two drafts. You’re happy with getting the 129th pick, or thereabouts, for a guy you staked the franchise on two years ago?

Over the 2021, 2022 and 2023 drafts, the 49ers traded 12th, 29th, 101st and 29th picks for the privilege of taking Lance. One of those picks was used to choose Micah Parsons, one of football’s best defensive players.

So the word on the Bay Area street is that Shanahan had given up on Lance and valued Allen more if he had an emergency in 2023. If that is true, then if I’m Niners owner Jed York, I call Kyle into a meeting one day this week after the rosters are cut. I say: “I love you. I think you’re great at your job. However, you wasted three first-round draft picks on a quarterback you just tossed out in the trash after two injury-plagued seasons. That is not acceptable. We need to figure a way to put some guardrails in place so that this never happens again. We don’t have to do it now. But I want you to know that as the steward of the franchise I’m going to take a more active role after the season in making sure something like this doesn’t happen again. No matter how well we do this year, losing three first-round picks in succession is eventually going to be felt significantly on this team.”

I don’t get this from Dallas’ perspective either … unless deep down Jerry and Stephen Jones are questioning whether Dak Prescott is either the long-term quarterback or can be re-signed after his contract expires in 2024. Cooper Rush went 4-1 when Prescott was hurt last year, and I doubt sincerely Mike McCarthy would start Lance over Rush in 2023 if Prescott gets hurt again. So this is a play to get Lance in the building and see what he’s got, I guess. But how does Lance get more experience in Dallas this year when he shows up to learn a brand new offense on Aug. 26, coming into a team with every bit the championship expectation that the Niners had?

Dallas could exercise Lance’s fifth-year option for 2025 after this season, but that makes sense (at an estimated $28 million guaranteed) only if he’d have a good chance to play in 2025. And how would they know if that was a wise move if he doesn’t play in 2023? That just adds to the illogic of this.

So this doesn’t make sense to me, from either side. To be fair, I’ll give Shanahan a chance to explain how the Lance thing all went sideways, from his Friday night press conference. It’s lightly edited.

“We had the 12th pick in the draft, after that Covid year,” Shanahan said. “But we thought we had a really good team and we didn’t think we’d have a chance again to get close to that top area to take a quarterback in the top 10. We looked at everything between [their pick at 12^th overall and three, where Miami sat] and we got that and we took our shot. Something we believed in, a person we believed in. Hoping he could play more his first year. We knew he wouldn’t come in and just take it over from Jimmy [Garoppolo], but we were hoping to mix him in and kind of give him some experience. But once he broke his finger [in August 2021], it just got tougher for him as time went. We knew we’d commit to him the next year, which we did. We knew he wasn’t fully ready in every aspect, but we knew he had a skill set that we could put some stuff together to give him the chance to compete and grow with a good team as he developed as a full quarterback. He got hurt in the first quarter of the second game, which kind of set that back. Now we’re here in the third year. And we still got a good team. We thought it would be Trey. I think we got pretty fortunate falling into still having a rookie quarterback [Purdy] that happened to be the seventh-round pick.”

All true. But coaches are paid to be problem-solvers. Shanahan’s been a good one. With what’s at stake, it stuns me he’d rather have Brandon Allen as his insurance policy than the guy he judged to have franchise talent two years ago. If I’m a Niners fan, it worries me too. This feels too knee-jerk, impatient to the max. And it puts tremendous pressure on Purdy to play as he did in his magical eight-game run last season. To me, this was a trade that didn’t need to be made. And shouldn’t have been made.

RENTON, Wash.—Five Seahawks thoughts after a day with the team last week:

1. Legion of Boom redux. So much of this roster construction fascinates me, because GM John Schneider—exactly as he did in building a Super Bowl team a decade ago—concentrated on the back end of the defense, the linebackers and secondary. Seattle didn’t have a huge need at safety, but Schneider went out and bought a top-five player on the Giants’ defense last season, safety Julian Love; he and Quandre Diggs will form a terrific safety tandem and allow Jamal Adams to roam down in the box to be a playmaker—if he’s finally healthy. First-round corner Devon Witherspoon beefs up a rich depth chart there. My favorite player in the back: Coby Bryant, who will play all five positions (both safeties, both outside corners, and nickel) as needed this year, and will play them in a playmaker fashion.

The return of Bobby Wagner, who ended his lone year out of the Seattle womb playing well for the Rams, is a bonus. I got a kick out of asking him about the rebirth of the Legion. “When I played against the Seahawks last year,” Wagner told me, “they had all these new guys. They’re talking trash. I’m telling them, like, ‘I had that jersey before you guys were even born. Don’t tell me what the Seahawks mean! I created what the Seahawks mean to you guys.’” He feels a fun bond with the newbies.

It’s going to be a tough road. Seattle was in the mid-twenties in points and yards allowed last year. Which brings me to …

2. I worry about run defense. Seattle’s Achilles heel will be first and second down, as it was last year, when the team surrendered 4.9 yards per rush. This team will be average at best if that happens again. End Dre’Mont Jones was a physical and tough add in free agency, but with no picks to buttress run D in the top three rounds, and only 30-year-old journeyman (and former ‘Hawk) Jarran Reed to add to the front, this aspect of the defense could be a killer.

3. Speaking of the Legion, Wagner’s a wise owl. Love the Seahawk fans. In the lone home preseason game when the defense was introduced before game, Wagner got one of the biggest ovations I’ve ever heard at an exhibition game. Chilling. This was Aug. 19, at Lumen Field, against Dallas. The ovation lasted a good 15 to 18 seconds. “You dream about moments like that,” Wagner told me. “Unforgettable.”

“A great moment,” Pete Carroll said. “And just wait—it’ll be greater opening day when he gets introduced.”

Wagner’s 33, but he’s coming off two straight years—2021 in Seattle, 2022 with the Rams—of impressive performances as the nerve center of the defense. Though he can see the end of his career, he thinks he has a year or two of defensive quarterbacking left in him. He negotiated his own contracts with the Rams and this year with Seattle GM John Schneider to return.

“It’s about football, but it’s about life after football,” he said. “Like, I want to be able to negotiate deals that don’t have anything to do with football. The energy I get from business people is the knock on athletes is they don’t have the experience. So I’m trying to eliminate that stereotype that we don’t have that experience that I’ve been doing it for a while now. That’s one thing they can’t say about me … It’s a great story. It’s not finished. I’m excited to get out there and continue to prove that I can play at a high level.” Seattle’s playoff life this year might depend on Wagner.

4. Geno Smith is a lean machine. Smith became a pescatarian last spring. “I haven’t had chicken or beef in four or five months now,” he told me. “I’ve been eating really healthy, really clean.” It’d be interesting if Smith, one of the great stories of the NFL in 2022, can be better than his re-emergence on the NFL scene last season. With all the hand-wringing about Russell Wilson’s departure, Smith far outperformed Wilson in Seattle in 2021 and Wilson in Denver in 2022. He threw for 4,282 yards, with 30 TDs and 11 picks, and a rating of 100.9.

He says he intends to be more of a running threat to even out his game in 2023. “I still feel like I don’t really do enough of the stuff on the move. Being able to create off-schedule. And then being able to attack a little more in the red zone.” Smith had top-10 QB numbers in 2022. The Seahawks should hope he can match those numbers. Smith is determined to improve them.

5. Seattle’s so much deeper at the skill positions. With Jaxon Smith-Njigba and upstart free agent Jake Bobo set to impact the receiver corps, and a (supposedly) healthy Kenneth Walker and rookie Zach Charbonnet anchoring the backfield, this is going to be an offensive attack that gives teams problem. D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett (2022 combined: 174 catches, 2081 yards, 15 TDs) have had excellent camps.

I left here thinking if Seattle can improve to middle-of-the-pack against the run, the NFC West will be a Niners-‘Hawks contest into January.

The one thing I felt was desperately needed for the Broncos (and for Denver fans, and for Russell Wilson) when the offseason began was the hiring of Sean Payton. This became a rock-solid lock to me when Wilson stepped to the podium at the end of the Broncos’ shocking 5-12 season and, in a long diatribe about the season and the future, said, “Next season, year two, begins tomorrow morning, 5:30 in the morning.”

Harmless words, probably. But if you’d followed Russell “High Knees on the Plane to Europe” Wilson all season, you heard over and over about his work ethic, his dedication, his devotion to the job. When you’re winning, and playing at a top-five QB level, that’s fine. Say what you want. But Wilson was in the midst of a terrible season, after Denver paid him at the top of the market for the best players in NFL history. At one point before Payton took the job, I remember talking to him about the Denver job, which was open, and about Wilson. He gave me a flippant line, but a perfect one, about Wilson. “Man, stop kissing all the babies! You’re not running for office!”

I don’t know what precisely Payton has said to Wilson, or his team, this off-season. I spoke to Payton last week, and he wouldn’t spill. But Payton has a Parcells-like way about him. Blunt is best. I feel strongly he’s told his team something like: Guys, it’s not about what you say. It’s about what you do. The fact that Wilson hasn’t done many one-on-one interviews in Denver this offseason and in camp—last year he did a thousand—tells me the message has been received. Let’s play football. Let’s stop talking about football.

So let’s talk about Wilson, 2023 version. He played last year at 225, figuring he wanted to be able to take more hits in the pocket. He’s down to 212 now, and mobile Russ should be back this season. “He’s moving really well,” Payton said. “One of the things he’s always done exceptionally well is deliver the ball off-schedule. A play breaks down, he can go get 18 yards or he can flush the pocket. He’s exceptional in that area.

“I would say this—he’s gonna be a lot closer to those 2021 numbers than he was the 2022 numbers. The arm talent and the throws down the field. He’s always thrown a really good deep ball. But I do think he’s moving a lot better. And you know there’s something powerful about a guy with a chip on his shoulder.”

I have little doubt Wilson can resume the career of a top-10 NFL quarterback. He’s surrendered all the trappings and given himself over to the Payton way, which obviously works. He was a damaged player last year, his confidence battered. You could see it in debacle games like the 12-9 home loss to Indy, with fans streaming for the exits in a still-competitive game, and the horribly embarrassing 51-14 Christmas Day loss to a brutal Rams team. The only way to go for Wilson was to submit to the coaching and the barbs of Payton, and I’ve heard that’s what he’s done.

Will it work? The NFL was kind to Denver with a Raiders-Commanders-Dolphins-Bears beginning of the season. Denver had better be at least .500 coming out of that stretch. That’s because the next five games include matchups against Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Mahomes again and Josh Allen. Reality awaits, and the reality is that Wilson could be markedly better and Denver could be just marginally better.

A few tips as you head into your drafts (and keep in mind, I’m terrible at fantasy football):

1. Tight end depth is good. Juwan Johnson of the Saints could be Derek Carr’s new Darren Waller … I saw in Green Bay that rookie Luke Musgrave was a size-speed impact player, and Jordan Love’s going to need some easy intermediate completions … Sam LaPorta (Detroit) should be around late in drafts. Lions love him.

2. Moore Moore Moore. D.J. Moore, new Bear, should average eight to 10 targets a week; what a competitive, instinctive player. Patrick Mahomes is smitten with Skyy Moore, who was a regular at every off-season workout Mahomes conducted … The Browns love Elijah Moore as a complement to Amari Cooper, and this Moore will be used out of the backfield too.

3. Draft Zay Flowers. You’ll thank me later. The rookie Ravens wideout has rare separation and quickness.

4. Draft Justin Herbert. Well, duh. If healthy for 17 weeks (history says he has a good chance), he’ll put up Mahomesian numbers, and my guess is he’ll be there 20 picks or so after Mahomes goes in your draft.

5. Not on the Bijan hype train. Great rookie Falcon, this Bijan Robinson. He could be the next McCaffrey. Problem: Falcons coach Arthur Smith has so many weapons in his positionless offense, and he added Robinson and old friend Jonnu Smith in the offseason. Hard to see Bijan making an Ekeler- or McCaffrey-sized impact in year one.

6. Trust the Niners; draft Brock Purdy. Let the hyped QBs pass while you take an all-purpose back, two receivers, a couple of BPAs (best players available), and Juwan Johnson. Then nab the fit-as-a-fiddle executor of the Shanahan offense.

7. Draft/stash Kenneth Gainwell. Gainwell, of the Eagles, is the best example of why running backs aren’t getting paid, after his 112-yard performance in the playoffs against the Giants. He’ll have some impact games this year in Philly.

Misc. Seattle’s a good Defense/special teams pick late after adding Dre’Mont Jones, Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love this off-season … Potential last-round picks if you’ve got no clue what to do: Falcons QB Desmond Ridder, Seattle WR Jake Bobo. Ridder’s in a weak division with great weaponry. Bobo (four years at Duke, one at UCLA) has had a monster camp and could open the season as Geno Smith’s third receiver.

Seattle quarterback Geno Smith, on what he learned in the seven years between starting gigs in the NFL—between his 2014 season with the Jets and his resurgent 2022 year in Seattle:

“The important thing to do is to take ownership, not make any excuses, not look for a copout. Find ways to get better. Find your why. Why do you do this? That’ll keep you in it when maybe no one else believes. Be a self-starter. Getting up at 6 a.m., going to the gym, writing notes, studying, reading. I just took ownership of everything and I made sure that when my opportunity came I’d be ready for it.

“I would also say one of the things I learned is the importance of note-taking. I’m very, very particular in the way that I write notes and take notes. I have piles and piles of notebooks over the course of the years. Even if it’s something that I know already, I’ll write it down as if I don’t. I listen to what coach says. I’m big on being coachable. I want to be coached. I want to be pushed.

“Another thing I’ve learned just from the quarterbacks I’ve been around is the importance of positive leadership. Everyone needs that person that’s positive and uplifting and is going to make them believe that things will be great, even if it’s not looking good. That’s something I really learned from Russell Wilson. He’s got that unwavering belief. I commend him for that. That’s something that I didn’t always have.”

This week, at the end of my camp trip in my 40^th season covering the NFL, I look back at my first summer doing it: 1984. That year, covering the Bengals for the Cincinnati Enquirer, I’ll never forget training camp in dusty, broiling Wilmington, Ohio, an hour northeast of Cincinnati, living in the team dorm down the hall from coach Sam Wyche and president Mike Brown. One of my assignments that summer was writing a diary of a longshot: undersized free-agent linebacker Brian Pillman, a college teammate of John Harbaugh at Miami of Ohio. Wrestling fans may remember the late Pillman as Flyin’ Brian … but in 1984, that was neither here nor there. He was doing everything he could to make his hometown Bengals. And he had a problem with one veteran on the team. My memory:

I.

--San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan, after the trade of Trey Lance to the Cowboys Friday.

II.

--Steeler coach Mike Tomlin, asked about playing his starters in the preseason when many coaches do not.

III.

--Anson Dorrance, the legendary North Carolina soccer coach, sounding like an incredibly small and petty man, speaking to WRAL-TV in North Carolina about the possibility of Stanford and Cal joining the Atlantic Coast Conference.

What a pathetic statement by a giant of the women’s game.

IV.

--Tua Tagovailoa, responding to ESPN analyst Ryan Clark’s strong inference that the Miami quarterback didn’t work out hard this offseason, and looked overweight.

I liked Ryan Clark as a player and like him as a person—a lot. But if he’s got some evidence that Tagovailoa was slothful in the offseason, bring it. Otherwise, it’s a careless shot. Good to see him apologize publicly for it.

In the 2017 NFL draft, three receivers went in the top 10: Corey Davis (five) to Tennessee, Mike Williams (seven) to the Chargers, John Ross (nine) to the Bengals.

Davis retired Wednesday. Williams starts for the Chargers, earned a second contract with them, and is a significant receiving weapon. Ross played small parts of four seasons and did not play football last year.

Total all-pro berths earned by the three receivers in six years: zero.

Total Pro Bowl berths earned by the three receivers in six years: zero.

Average season for the three receivers: 35 catches, 522 yards, 15.0 yards per catch, three touchdowns.

Career earnings for the three players through Aug. 1, 2023, per overthecap.com: $135.2 million.

Williams is a B-plus receiver. Ross was a bust. Davis was worthy of the 105^th pick, not the fifth. Projecting receivers is a risky business.

I.

In my travels to camps and teams in recent years, one thing that’s stood out is the effort to educate players (and coaches) on the importance of sleep to performance. When I went to visit the Saints on the road in California prior to their game last weekend against the Chargers, I saw cans of a “sleep drink” in their cafeteria: Som Sleep, a sugar-free berry-flavored 8.1-ounce sleep aid that Saints director of sports nutrition Jamie Meeks encourages players to drink about a half-hour before bed. With the calming effects of melatonin and GABA—which slows down activity in the nervous system—Som is used by about 50 players in training camp. Meeks estimated about 40 or 50 players during the season drink it the night before games.

Teams encourage players to sleep in quiet or with a soft noise machine to muffle outside noise, and to sleep in cold and dark rooms, and to avoid screens (TV, tablet, phone) for 30 minutes before sleeping. Som is next-level,

“Many of our players have trouble sleeping,” said Meeks. “This helps. We also supply tart cherry juice, which is very, very high in antioxidants, and that helps with sleep too. My assistant and I have talked about actually mixing Som and tart cherry juice to make a great sleep cocktail.”

II.

On the Seattle depth chart, one starting corner is listed at Riq Woolen. Tariq Woolen, a standout rookie for the Seahawks last year, went to the PR staff in the off-season and said he wanted to be listed as Riq, not Tariq, because everyone calls him Riq [pronounced “Reek”].

III.

Spotted at a Taylor Swift concert at SoFi Stadium this month: Roger Goodell, wife Jane and two daughters.

Cool quick video from the NBC video team on my camp trip (alternately, Kelsey Bartels, Kristen Coleman, Annie Koeblitz, Morgan Miller), with a snapshot of every camp:

My sincere thanks to those four tireless and versatile videographers/producers because the way we do the training-camp trip would be impossible without their work. One example: We got to our hotel in Lake Forest, Ill., halfway from Green Bay to Colts camp in Westfield, Ind., at 10 p.m. on a Monday. We had to leave for the Colts at 4:40 a.m., less than seven hours later. No complaints from Kelsey or Morgan, who were on this leg of the trip. I drove the next morning, which I don’t often do. We were delayed for 70 minutes early in the trip by a shooting on a Chicago highway, then came to a dead stop on I-65 an hour or so later because of a huge accident. And waited. And waited. Now we were going to miss the entire practice, and I was thinking of aborting the trip. I took the temperature of the car. Kelsey said, “Peter, we’ll do what you want to do. It’s fine.” We turned around—but the point was, that’s the kind of attitude you need when you’re on a long-hours trip like this one.

Here they are, left to right: top, Kristen Coleman and Annie Koeblitz; bottom, Kelsey Bartels and Morgan Miller.

Reach me at peterkingfmia@gmail.com.

Thanks to you, and thanks to Dan Pompei. From Sean Rose: “Longtime reader, first-time emailer. I am 35 years old and have been reading your columns for as long as I can remember. I wanted to reach out one time after reading Dan Pompei’s profile in The Athletic and its foreshadowing of your next chapter. I am greedy and hope you keep going after this season. But understanding that one must not make decisions based on the desires of strangers, I wanted to thank you for teaching me about football and journalism over the years. For those who work the traditional work week, your column eases us into Monday and helps us understand what happened on and behind the football field the day before. Even in the current media environment, your column, like a newspaper columnist of years past, made me feel like we know each other. I wish you joy and health during your 40th season covering the league.”

Hey Sean, that’s a wonderful note. I sincerely appreciate it. I also appreciate Dan Pompei taking the time to learn about me and write about me. He spent most of three days on the road with me and my NBC crew, and we talked for hours. Dan made me cry. He asked me a lot about my family, and my upbringing, and it got me to thinking how I’d never, ever be where I am today without my mom and dad, and I just—quietly—lost it for 10 seconds in the back of the car somewhere in Iowa. Dan is a great interviewer and writer, and I feel privileged he spent the time to write about me here.

He doesn’t think Kyle Shanahan’s a good coach. From Mark Kappel: “Kyle is supposed to be such a great coach but he’s lost two Super Bowls and last year got his butt kicked by Andy Reid (again), spent three first-round draft picks on a quarterback who so far is a bust. And the only reason he and John Lynch aren’t being run out of town is because they lucked into pick 262!”

Three thoughts, Mark:

1. Assume you’re talking about the Falcons blowing the 28-3 lead as one of those Super Bowls. Shanahan, Atlanta’s offensive coordinator back in 2016, does bear some responsibility there, going scoreless after the midway point of the third quarter. He wasn’t in charge of a defense that allowed the Patriots to score on each of their last five possessions and plow through the Falcons for 338 yards in 26 minutes.

2. Trey Lance was a big, big miss. Shanahan took a risk on a quarterback who’d started only one year of football since high school, and it’s bitten him. He deserves the heat for it. But a sprained knee in ’21 and a badly broken ankle in ’22 robbed Lance of two starting chances. Hard to blame anyone for those, but trading a pile of resources for a relatively inexperienced player is on Shanahan and Lynch, as is the decision to trade him for pennies on the dollar. Not smart. At all.

3. The Patriots lucked into Tom Brady at pick 199 in 2000. The Packers lucked into Bart Starr at pick 200 in 1956. The Broncos lucked into Terrell Davis at pick 196 in 1995, and Shannon Sharpe at pick 192 in 1990. That’s what I think about luck. Shanahan juggled two starting quarterbacks in 2021 and three in ’22 including Mr. Irrelevant, and posted a 27-13 record in those seasons. In coaching, things are going to go wrong, and good coaches figure out alternative ways to win. Shanahan has done that. I’m down on the Lance trade, and it’s part of his record. But he’ll have a chance to show it was a call he had to make.

Be careful of the “general consensus.” From Dan Donovan: “Since the general consensus seems to be that the NFL will expand its schedule to 18 regular season games sooner rather than later is there any movement to increase team roster size beyond 53 players?”

I don’t buy that the union will agree to 18 games anytime soon. So I think it’s moot, for now.

Put Jim Marshall in the Hall. From Randall Hanson: “How does Jim Marshall who never missed a game in 19 years in those Minnesota conditions and who played at a very high level throughout not in the Hall of Fame? This to me just seems like a joke and really makes me question the intelligence of most sportswriters. Can you please make the case for him not being in?”

Marshall should get credit, a massive amount, for playing every game for 19 seasons for the Vikings. I think there are a couple of things working against him. One: two Pro Bowls and zero first-team all-pro nods in 19 years. Two: Carl Eller and Alan Page are in the Hall of Fame from that defensive line. Marshall would be a third, which is a lot for a team that never won a championship. I do respect his case, though, and think he’s a good candidate. He is eligible for the Hall as a Seniors candidate. Those nominations are run by a committee that I am not on. I do think he’ll have a chance in the coming years, as will many good candidates whose cases have not gotten traction in recent years.

I don’t cover the Steelers enough. From Mark McDole: “‘Which fan base has reason to be most excited?’ If you had answered that question after week two of the preseason your answer surely would have included the Steelers and you would not have completely left them out of your Aug. 21 column. I am sure, like me, there are a lot of Steelers fans who have been reading your column for as long as they can remember. We do this because of the respect we have for your knowledge and opinion of the NFL. You are my “Cronkite.’ When there is no mention, I do not even bother going back and reading the column. So I am asking you to do a little better.”

I don’t keep a close eye on the teams I don’t see when I’m on the road during training camps. In week one of the column this summer, I visited the Steelers and wrote two chunks of the column on them.

1. I think we’ve never seen what we’re going to see Tuesday afternoon, when the 32 NFL teams are required to cut the roster from 90 to 53. The one-cut date is new this year. (Some teams aren’t at 90 currently; they’ve either cut some players loose or put them on IR, or both. But with about 1,100 players flooding the market Tuesday instead of the customary 800, it creates a couple of issues for teams. Teams have until 4 p.m. ET Wednesday to claim players; the league awards players to claiming teams based on the inverse order of last year’s standings. The top four teams in the claiming order, in order: Chicago, Houston, Arizona, Indianapolis. So if Chicago GM Ryan Poles claims any of those cut loose, he’ll get as many as he claims. The schedule, per a memo from NFL Player Personnel last week:

Tuesday, 4 p.m. ET: Deadline for all teams to be at a 53-man roster limit, sending players they intend to release to the league’s personnel wire. There are two categories of players: waived players (players with less than four years of credited NFL service), or termination of vested veterans (players with four years or more of credited service). Vested veterans can sign with any team. Waived players are subject to the claiming system.

Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET (approximately): Teams will be informed of all players who have been released in a league email.

Wednesday, Noon ET: Deadline for teams to submit claims on any waived players.

Wednesday, 1 p.m. ET: Teams will be informed of any players they have been awarded under the waiver system. Once notified, each team has one hour to notify the league of a corresponding removal of a player or players from their 53-man roster to make room for the claimed player or players.

Wednesday, 6 p.m. ET: Deadline for teams to submit 16-player practice squads to the league. The league will post each team’s practice squad in an email to teams by 8 p.m. ET Wednesday.

2. I think the first issue is how you decide if you’re going to claim any players, with so many coming on the market. One AFC GM told me he divides teams up among six scouts, with each told to isolate on players he thinks could get cut from that team Tuesday and who his team had previously graded highly—either coming out of college or in looks since they got into an NFL camp. This GM asks his scouts for a list of five to eight players per team the GM should consider claiming. The GM might watch some preseason tape on some of the highlighted players his scouts are high on. Then the claims are made. Another GM said he divides the 31 teams among eight scouts—some pro, some college evaluators—and tells them to gather whatever intelligence they can on those likely to be 40 or lower on the team’s pecking order. Then the GM asks for a list of best candidates on the team the scout is studying who the scout thinks could help the team.

3. I think one other thing fascinates me—how coaches and GMs try to stash players they plan to cut but bring back to the practice squad. I talked to one GM about plans for the practice squad. His point: We have a 69-man roster, not 53-. Many teams feel this way, because of how players float back and forth from practice squad to active roster during the season. So you’ll see some teams cut guys who might have shined in major playing time during the three preseason games—while keeping guys who barely played, or may not have played. Smart GMs don’t want to play some guys they know they want on the practice squad because that just puts tape out on strong players for other teams to see. “That’s why joint practices have become so popular, and you see teams doing them twice pretty often now,” one GM said. “You can see how a guy plays against quality competition. Then you might not feel you need to play him in a preseason game—and you avoid putting tape out on the guy if all you’re doing is playing him in joint practices.”

4. I think this game-within-a-game is the story you’ll never get team people to discuss openly, because they don’t want to give away secrets to allow other GMs a window into their processes.

5. I think, for the record, Aaron Donald is not likely to play the twilight of his career for the Steelers. I hear it’s not a burning desire of his.

6. I think for all the media hand-wringing over the retirement of Corey Davis, I’m a little confused. The social-media reaction was, basically, Oh my God, we’ve lost a great player. Nice player. Not a great one. Happy for Davis though—for making $52 million in his six seasons and getting out with, presumably, his faculties intact.

7. I think I wonder, deep down, if coaches worry about the lag time before opening day now. The four teams that finished their preseason Thursday night—Eagles, Colts, Steelers, Falcons—will have 16 practice/rest days before playing their openers on Sunday, Sept. 10. I’m sure you can find a benefit to that somewhere, but that’s a lot of rest. And what of the players who haven’t played in the preseason? Justin Herbert will line up opening day having not played a football game in 34 weeks. It’s 32 weeks for Jalen Hurts. I know it’s the safe thing to do, but Herbert’s got the new Vic Fangio defense (Miami) and Mike Vrabel’s D (Tennessee) in the first eight days, with the Titans game likely played on a scorching day in Nashville at high noon. After not playing a game in 224 days, Hurts, in five days, faces Bill Belichick’s D in Foxboro, then the Vikings on Thursday in the home opener. Not saying I’d do it differently, but it’s something to watch.

8. I think the Cade York Adventure continues. Last week, he missed 47- and 41-yard field-goal tries in the final two minutes; the Browns tied the Eagles. This weekend, he had a 43-yarder blocked in the final minute in a one-point loss to Kansas City. Wide right, wide left, blocked—and every one with the game on the line. Your move, Browns.

9. I think the young quarterback who made the most progress toward being a top-dozen QB in the league in the preseason is Kenny Pickett. The Steelers have to feel great about their team, and their quarterback, entering a season in a stacked AFC North.

10. I think these are my other thoughts of the week:

a. Last week, I wrote about Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove and his fantasy football fandom. The Padres had their fantasy draft Thursday night, an off-night, at their hotel in Milwaukee. I asked Musgrove for the first round in the Pads’ draft, and also his team.

b. The first round of the Padres draft:

1. Justin Jefferson
2. Christian McCaffrey
3. Ja’Marr Chase (to Xander Bogaerts)
4. Austin Ekeler (to Musgrove)
5. Tyreek Hill
6. Cooper Kupp
7. Travis Kelce
8. Stefon Diggs
9. Davante Adams
10. Ceedee Lamb
11. Saquon Barkley
12. Nick Chubb

c. Musgrove’s team:

• QBs: Justin Herbert
• RBs: Ekeler, Travis Etienne, A.J. Dillon, Raheem Mostert, Deuce Vaughn
• WRs: Deebo Samuel, Jahan Dotson, Skyy Moore, Treylon Burks, Rondale Moore, Chase Claypool
• TEs: Mark Andrews, Luke Musgrave
• D/STms: New Orleans
• K: Harrison Butker

Strong tight end group.

d. RIP Bob Barker. He had a heck of a run.

e. Happy 70^th birthday, Bob Avellini.

f. Happy 60^th to one of the best special-teams players of his era, Reyna Thompson. Bill Parcells thought he was one of his five most valuable players on the 1990 Super Bowl Giants.

g. Football-Related Story of the Week: Santul Nerkar of The New York Times, with a smart analysis of the Blind Side drama between Michael Oher and Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.

h. Nerkar found the judge, in retirement, who approved of the conservatorship arrangement between the Tuohys and Oher. I couldn’t help but think this judge, Robert Benham, didn’t do much due diligence on the case after reading this analysis.

i. Wrote Nerkar:

Benham, 85, retired from the bench in 2013 and lives in Santa Barbara, Calif. In an interview, he said he didn’t know the Tuohys and wasn’t aware at the time that Oher played football. But he said he wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Oher was an athlete.

“I’d never seen anyone that large,” Benham said. “And I wear size 14 shoes, and his shoes were a lot bigger than mine.”

Benham said he approved the conservatorship because no one opposed it. Oher and his mother, Denise, were present and signed on the dotted line. Benham said he disagreed that proving a disability or incapacity was a prerequisite under the law for a conservatorship.

He said he waived the investigator because all parties wanted the conservatorship and said the yearly status reports were the purview of the clerk, not the judge.

… Oher would eventually earn millions in the N.F.L. after he was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. His relationship with the Tuohys also generated income through the film, books and other opportunities. Through it all, the Tuohys remained his conservators, responsible for overseeing his contracts. But the court didn’t order them to give annual updates, as the law requires, and they didn’t. For nearly 20 years after the conservatorship was granted, there were no new filings in the case.

j. Man. Any adults in the room here?

k. Speaking of any adults in the room, how in the world is the Spanish soccer federation head, Luis Rubiales, simply suspended and not fired after forcibly kissing the star of the team in the aftermath of Spain’s World Cup win over England?

l. There’s an I-did-nothing-wrong ethos sweeping the globe—hmmm, wonder why that is—in the last few years, when clearly the person has done something seriously wrong. And so life just goes on, and Rubiales will presumably slink back into authority in the Spanish federation. Disgusting.

m. Obit of the Week: Tu Thanh Ha of The Globe and Mail in Canada on Sidney Itzkowitz, who died at 96 after being a Nazi-fighter in World War II as a very young man, then relocating with four brothers to Canada to live life.

n. Wrote Ha:

They were five Jewish brothers in German-occupied Poland. They evaded the death squads that murdered their parents. They took part in a mass escape from a ghetto in a medieval castle. They joined partisan units operating behind enemy lines in the forests and marshes of Belarus.

Three of the brothers survived the war and eventually settled in Montreal, where they became successful entrepreneurs. Now the last of them has passed away.

Sidney Itzkowitz died Friday in Montreal. He was 96.

“You were witness to such evil at such a young age. But you did overcome it all and managed to build such an amazing and successful life,” his daughter Selina said in a eulogy at the funeral service Sunday.

o. Some people are such heroes. It makes what most of do in normal lives feel so small.

p. Wakeup Call of the Week: Alice Woelfle of National Public Radio on a story you’ve got to listen to if you own property near the California coastline.

q. Then again, maybe you won’t want to hear about the threat of erosion that could eliminate many California beaches by the end of the century.

r. Reports Woelfle:

California’s beaches are world famous. But new research indicates many could disappear by the century’s end due to erosion from sea level rise.

“The shoreline is probably going to retreat landward about 30 meters or more for every meter of sea level rise you get,” said Sean Vitousek, a research oceanographer at the U. S. Geological Survey and lead author of the report. “When you get into three meters of sea level rise, you’re talking almost 300 feet of erosion … not to mention the flooding challenges that are also associated with sea level rise.”

Using nearly four decades of satellite images and models of predicted sea level rise and global wave patterns, the researchers estimate 25 to 75 percent of California’s beaches “may become completely eroded” by 2100.

s. Three baseball things:

t. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, from Thursday to Sunday, batting 1-2 in the Dodgers order: 25 hits, eight doubles, 13 runs, nine RBI, three steals. Twenty-five hits in five games in four days. Wow. And good for Mookie, getting a prolonged (and deserved) ovation on his first trip back to Boston Friday night.

u. Rays record, noon, July 1: 57-28, 6.5-game lead in the AL East. Rays record since: 23-24 … Orioles at noon, July 1: 48-32. Orioles record since: 33-17. O’s are up on the Rays by two games.

v. Justin Turner’s best season as a Dodger, and his current season in Boston:

2016 (age 31): 79 runs, 34 doubles, 27 homers, 90 RBI, .832 OPS

2023 (age 38): 77 runs, 27 doubles, 22 homers, 85 RBI, .858 OPS (31 games left)

w. Kind of a bargain at $10.8 million, relatively speaking.

x. I wrote about the death of Turf, the 9-year-old chocolate lab who sprinted around the Seahawks practice field—even after cancer forced the amputation of one leg—last December. I’m happy to report Turf’s replacement, Rye, 5 months old, is cavorting around the fields these days, chasing away the birds and being a great heir to Turf’s team-dog legacy. Rye nipped at me and paused for maybe three seconds when I said, “Sit!” this photo, with the amazing eyes, resulted.

Niners better hope
Brock Purdy can stay healthy
For 17 games.