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| Wednesday, July 2, 2025 |
| Happy midweek, everyone! John Breech is taking the day to fire up the grill in anticipation of the Fourth, so today's Pick Six Newsletter is brought to you by Cody Benjamin, with tidbits on all the latest from around the NFL. |
| Be sure to subscribe right here, to ensure you never miss a daily dose of NFL updates. And keep on reading for everything from a summer check-in on veteran quarterbacks to a deep dive on the new-look Pittsburgh Steelers: |
| 1. Most overrated and underrated QBs: Where do Cowboys land? |
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| Quarterbacks drive the NFL conversation. But which ones might be getting a bit too much hype these days? And which ones deserve even more love than they get? We identified some of the league's most overrated (and underrated) quarterbacks ahead of 2025 training camp, and a couple of NFC East stars landed on opposite ends of the rundown: |
| Overrated: Dak Prescott (Cowboys) -- It's not that Prescott is bad. He really isn't. You don't last nearly a decade as the Dallas Cowboys' starter, with seven playoff appearances, by accident. But that Cowboys brand magnifies everything, and the simple truth is that Prescott is the latest face of an organization that's routinely failed to make deep-playoff noise out of the NFC. He's regularly considered among the NFL's top 10 or so starters, he's survived multiple coaching changes and he's repeatedly landed lucrative extensions in Dallas. He's also struggled to stay healthy and/or control the ball in three of his last five seasons, and he enters Year 10 with just two postseason victories to his name.Underrated: Jalen Hurts (Eagles) -- Wait, really? The reigning Super Bowl MVP is underrated? It sure seems like it. You won't find anyone who puts up a fight when you mention Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen in lists of elite quarterbacks. Throw Hurts' name in there, however, and all of a sudden you're clawing for your life. But since when did gaudy stats and pretty highlights mean more than, you know, winning games that matter ? Hurts played more of a background role in the Philadelphia Eagles' historic Super Bowl LIX run, but too many people forget he's now given two championship-caliber performances at that stage. And he's still just 26! He may not be flawless, but he's close to inevitable. |
| Check out where some other big-name quarterbacks landed right here. |
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| 2. What to expect from Steelers' new-look offense |
| Pittsburgh didn't just undergo another quarterback makeover this offseason, even if Aaron Rodgers is the biggest story in Steel City this year. The Steelers practically redid their entire skill group, adding DK Metcalf, Jonnu Smith and Kaleb Johnson, among others. How, exactly, is the new lineup going to function? Jared Dubin took a deep dive into their 2025 offensive expectations. |
| We know that Arthur Smith's teams tend to be run-heavy. His Falcons ranked fifth in the NFL in called run rate during his three seasons there, per Tru Media, while the Titans ranked second during his two seasons as OC and the Steelers checked in fourth last year. ... Rodgers has typically operated pass-heavy offenses (59% called pass rate), which held true both under Matt LaFleur (57.5%) and last year in New York (63.2%). ... There's a pretty wide disparity in how this type of union can go, and a lot of it depends on whether or not Rodgers actually wants to play inside the structure of the offense. |
| Check out Dubin's full breakdown of the Steelers, including Rodgers' weapons, right here. |
| 3. Ranking rookie WRs by projected 2025 impact |
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| Several big-name wide receiver prospects joined the NFL this spring, none bigger than Travis Hunter, who went No. 2 overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars thanks to a draft-day trade up by the AFC South squad. Where does Hunter rank among rookie pass catchers in terms of projected 2025 impact? Chris Trapasso has him second behind Tetaroia McMillan: |
| I wanted to rank Hunter higher. I really did. And I won't be floored if he's the most productive rookie receiver at season's end; he's clearly the most talented. His position flex makes him such a wild card. I have no clue -- no one does -- how much the Jaguars plan to utilize him on each side of the ball and/or if the split duty will slow his productivity on offense and/or defense. ... But I cannot heap enough praise on Hunter's advanced game at receiver, a skillset that slowly but surely grew from his time at Jackson State through the two seasons at Colorado. He's nifty off the line against press, his supreme athleticism makes him an impossible cover, his ability to track the football is probably his finest trait, and he's a menace after the catch. |
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| 4. NFL not expected to talk 18-game schedule until 2026 |
| All signs point to the league eventually expanding the regular season, as commissioner Roger Goodell has publicly suggested. Just don't count on an official resolution until after the 2025 campaign, with The Washington Post reporting this week NFL owners and the NFL Players Association aren't expected to begin formal discussions until early 2026. The Post speculated that a move from 17 to 18 regular-season games might not occur until 2028 if this timeline unfolds as anticipated. |
| 5. Greatest teams of modern era: 2024 Eagles make the cut |
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| In the spirit of history ahead of America's birthday, Bryan DeArdo recently updated his ranking of the best NFL teams of the modern era -- a fitting nod to the legends of the game. And he didn't have to look too far to find a top-10 champion in the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles, who came in at No. 9 on his list of heroic squads: |
| You know what makes the '24 Eagles Super Bowl run even more impressive than the stats provided above? The Eagles could have outscored their playoff foes by an even wider margin had the situations called for it. Philadelphia called off the dogs early in the NFC title game as well as in the Super Bowl. They had a 40-6 lead over the two-time defending champion Chiefs with 8:06 left in Super Bowl LIX. Had the Eagles kept their foot on the gas pedal, it's conceivable that they could have challenged the 1989 49ers record for the largest margin of victory in Super Bowl history. |
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| 6. Bill Cowher to Steelers: Rodgers deserves full autonomy |
| Some Pittsburgh greats (see: Terry Bradshaw) aren't overly pleased with the Steelers taking a chance on Aaron Rodgers. Bill Cowher, meanwhile, sees it another way: Now that the Steelers have put their eggs in the Rodgers basket, it's time to take their hands off the offense. The Hall of Fame coach said this week he'd "absolutely" be in favor of giving the quarterback full control of Pittsburgh's attack: "I don't think there's any question about it. And I think Aaron's at a point where he knows you don't want him to be throwing the ball 40 times a game at this point. ... Listen, you can turn the ball over to him at the end of a half, at the end of a game and know he's been there before and I think he will operate that very, very efficiently." |
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