| | | | Monday, August 28, 2023 | | Welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! | | Today is supposed to be the calm before the storm in the NFL, but the NFL doesn't do calm, so we are heading straight into the storm. The NFL is likely going to give us total chaos over the next 24 hours and that's because cut day is coming up tomorrow. By 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, all 32 teams will have to have their rosters down to 53 players, which means more than 1,000 players are going to be released over the next 24 hours. | | Some teams have already started making cuts, and you can see who's been released by checking out our cuts tracker here (We'll cover the cuts a lot more tomorrow). With cut day coming up, we're going to take a look at a few surprise cuts that could be coming, plus, we'll be covering everything you need to know about the Trey Lance trade. | | Anyway, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. Let's get to the rundown. | | 1. Trey Lance trade: Here's everything you need to know about the 49ers QB being traded to Dallas | | | | You're probably already well aware that this trade happened, but we're going to start off with it today because there's a lot of information to cover. Between the Cowboys and 49ers, there seemed to be stuff trickling out all weekend. | | Here's everything you might have missed: | Cowboys' trade offer surprised the 49ers. On one hand, this trade was simple: The 49ers sent Trey Lance to Dallas, and in exchange, San Francisco got a 2024 fourth-round pick in return. On the other hand, it only ended up being simple because the Cowboys blew away the 49ers with their offer. John Lynch said none of the earlier offers for Lance were "anywhere close" to what the Cowboys offered. Kyle Shanahan admitted that the Cowboys' offer was "little better than we anticipated." 49ers wanted to trade him to the AFC. The 49ers were hoping to deal Lance away to an AFC team, and apparently, they almost got a deal done with the Bills, but they ended up making a trade with the Cowboys because, as Lynch said, no one offered anything close to what Dallas offered. It's possible the Cowboys offered so much because they had a second-round grade on Lance back in 2021, which also tells you that the 49ers might have reached by taking him with the third overall pick.Lance now holds unwanted record. With the trade, Lance now holds the record for the fewest games played with his team by a QB selected in the top five of the NFL Draft. Lance only played in eight games with the 49ers -- with four starts -- and that's the fewest by far. The next lowest number belongs to Bengals QB Greg Cook (fifth overall pick in 1969), who only played in 12 before being forced to retire due to injury. 49ers' original trade for Lance is now one of the worst in NFL history. To get Lance in 2021, the 49ers traded three first-round picks to move up from the 12th overall pick to the third selection. If you're wondering where that ranks on the list of worst draft trades ever, it is officially the worst one, according to CBSSports.com's Doug Clawson. You can check out his full list of ugly trades here. Jerry Jones didn't tell Dak Prescott about the trade. Leave it to Jerry Jones to make things awkward in Dallas. The Cowboys owner did NOT tell Dak Prescott about the trade before making it. It's not like Jones has to run every move by Dak, but I probably would have at least sent a text to let him know what's up before I make a trade for another quarterback, especially a former top-three pick. For his part, Dak shook things off and said he didn't expect to hear from Jones in a situation like this, but he kind of had to say that unless he wanted to make things more awkward. How Lance will fit in with the Cowboys. The trade for Lance actually makes some sense for the Cowboys, and Jared Dubin explained four reasons why. For one, Lance comes with a significant upside and the Cowboys were able to land him at a bargain-basement price. Also, the Cowboys could immediately create a package or two to take advantage of his ability to run. If you want to know every reason why this was a good move for Dallas, be sure to check out Dubin's full story here.
| | Finally, you can see our full story on the deal and our trade grades here (Spoiler alert: Both teams were given a grade in the 'B' range). | | | | 2. NFL cut day is almost here: 13 notable names who could be released | | Things are going to get kind of crazy in the NFL over the next 24 hours, and that's because tomorrow is cut day. Between now and 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, all 32 teams have to trim their roster down from 90 players to 53. | | Every year, there are a few surprises on cut day so we had Cody Benjamin try to predict who some of the surprise cuts could be coming this year. Here's a look at a few names on his list: | | Eagles QB Marcus MariotaBills QB Matt BarkleyChiefs RB Clyde Edwards-HelaireJets RB Zonovan KnightPatriots WR Ty Montgomery49ers DT Javon KinlawSaints K Wil Lutz | | If you want to see Cody's full list of 13 players, then be sure to check out his story here. If you want to keep tabs on every player who has been cut so far, you can do that by following our cuts tracker here. | | 3. NFL Preseason: Winners and losers from Week 3 | | | | The final week of the preseason came to an end on Sunday night with the Texans beating the Saints. Back when the NFL played four preseason games, you almost never saw any starters playing in the final preseason game, but with only three games on the preseason schedule for each team, there were plenty of starters on the field over the weekend, which is why we decided to put together a winners and losers list for Week 3. | | With that in mind, let's check out the winners from our list, which was put together by Cody Benjamin: | | Winners | | Jets fans. "Jets faithful finally got to witness Rodgers in live action Saturday, when the longtime Packers star hit new No. 1 Garrett Wilson for a pretty touchdown pass in a win over the Giants. It's all systems go for Week 1 and A-Rod's first-ever Big Apple tour."Journeymen backup quarterbacks. "Experienced reserves made strong pushes for job security around the NFL: Will Grier balled out with 350+ yards and four TDs after the Cowboys essentially replaced him with Trey Lance. Jarrett Stidham aired it out to cement himself as the Broncos' No. 2, Teddy Bridgewater settled in as the Lions' new backup against the Panthers, and both Jacoby Brissett and Jake Fromm led scoring drives for the Commanders against the Bengals."Tyjae Spears. "Spears has done his part to secure a role as Derrick Henry's sidekick on the ground. The third-round rookie got lots of work against the Patriots, and while his numbers weren't gaudy, he also had an impressive stiff-arm that showcased his open-field balance." | | If you want to know who the losers were on Cody's list, you'll have to click here. | | | | 4. 10 things we learned from the NFL preseason | | The 2023 NFL preseason is officially in the books. There were a total of 49 games played, and since Cody Benjamin watched them all -- Cody has had a busy month -- we asked him to come up with a list of 10 things that he learned during the preseason. | | Let's check out his top five: | | The Chiefs wide receivers will be just fine. "In 2022, the concern was losing All-Pro Tyreek Hill, but then the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. In 2023, the concern was adequately supporting Travis Kelce with, well, someone other than JuJu Smith-Schuster. Besides the fact Kelce and Patrick Mahomes would keep Kansas City afloat anyway, almost all of their young up-and-comers, including Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice and even Ihmir Smith-Marsette, have flashed big-play ability this summer."Bryce Young could use your prayers (or more help). "Frank Reich is a nice match at head coach, but not even Ikem Ekwonu, a solid left tackle as a rookie, has elevated a shaky line, and aging possession target Adam Thielen appears to be the only sure thing out wide."The Steelers offense is poised to take a big leap. "QB Kenny Pickett had no issue moving the ball this summer, aided by George Pickens' sideline acrobatics and Jaylen Warren's burst as Najee Harris relief. With an upgraded line and an underrated safety valve in tight end Pat Freiermuth, pretty much all the pieces are there for this club to make more noise in the AFC North."Jordan Love looks ready. "The regular season will be the ultimate test, but the former first-rounder was efficient, productive and, perhaps best of all, composed in all three exhibition starts."Derrick Henry might run for 2,000 yards again. "Even with Ryan Tannehill and DeAndre Hopkins, the Titans offense feels like another old-school Mike Vrabel operation that'll lean hard on Henry's superhuman size." | | If you want to want to see all 10 of our takeaways from the preseason, be sure to check out the full story here. | | 5. C.J. Stroud wins starting QB job in Houston | | | | The Texans waited as long as possible, but they finally named a starting quarterback over the weekend. Following Houston's 17-13 win over the Saints on Sunday night, Texans coach DeMeco Ryans announced that the job would be going to C.J. Stroud, which means the rookie will be on the field against the Ravens in Week 1. | | Why Ryans chose Stroud over Davis Mills. This "battle" wasn't much of a battle and that's because Stroud took nearly every first-team rep starting with the second week of training camp. However, it sounds like Stroud won Ryans over as early as Day 1. "It's been over the course of the entire process of OTAs, training camp, preseason games, seeing the complete product and knowing C.J.'s desire to continue to get better," Ryans said Sunday night . Stroud wasn't bad during the preseason, but he wasn't great. The QB job looked like it was going to go to Stroud unless he choked it away, but that didn't happen. The No. 2 overall pick started all three of Houston's preseason games and ended up going 11 of 20 for 89 yards and one touchdown with one interception. That total includes a 2-of-4 showing against the Saints on Sunday night where Stroud threw for 16 yards and a touchdown. Stroud will be one of three rookie quarterbacks starting in Week 1. With Stroud earning the starting job, that means he'll join Bryce Young (Panthers) and Anthony Richardson (Colts) as rookies who will be under center in Week 1. That number is tied with the 2021 season for the most rookie starting quarterbacks in the opening week over the past 10 years. | | Giving Stroud the starting job definitely makes sense for the Texans, but based on how he played in the preseason, there's definitely going to be a steep learning curve once the real games start, which means you shouldn't be surprised if the Texans have another long season. | | | | 6. Extra points: Josh Jacobs signs one-year deal | | It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. | Josh Jacobs returns to Raiders. After skipping the entire preseason, Josh Jacobs is finally back with the Raiders . To get him back in the fold, the Raiders offered to sweeten the pot on his franchise tag. The original tag was going to pay him $10.09 million, but under terms of the revised one-year deal, Jacobs will now make $11.8 million with a chance to earn another $200,000 in incentives. Getting his salary bumped up to $11.8 million is a big deal, because if the Raiders tag him again, they'll have to pay a 120% increase on his 2023 salary, so he'll make at least $14.16 million in 2024 if he gets tagged. Patriots make two trades over the weekend. The Patriots are in need of some offensive line depth and they attempted to fix that problem over the weekend by making two trades. First, they acquired offensive tackle Tyrone Wheatley Jr. from the Browns in exchange for running back Pierre Strong. After that, they acquired Vederian Lowe from the Vikings in a deal that saw Minnesota get a sixth-round pick in return. Rams make trade with Steelers. The Rams also added some offensive line depth over the weekend by making a trade with the Steelers. In the deal, the Rams will be getting Kevin Dotson along with a 2024 fifth-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick. As for the Steelers, they'll be getting a 2024 fourth-round pick and 2025 fifth-round pick in return. Browns lose wide receiver/returner for the year. For the second straight year, Jakeem Grant is going to miss the entire season due to an injury. The Browns returner suffered a broken patella on the opening kickoff against the Chiefs on Saturday. This comes one year after he suffered an Achilles injury that caused him to miss the entire 2022 season. Dolphins player released from hospital after scary injury. The game between the Dolphins and Jaguars on Saturday ended eight minutes early after the two teams decided to call the game due to an injury suffered by Daewood Davis. Although Davis was hospitalized, the good news is that he has since been released. The receiver is currently in concussion protocol.
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