Some preseason games have such great opportunity to scout rookie debuts and young players, that Ross and I want to both scout the game and then reveal/discuss our findings to each other and see how they line up or differ, and why.
We did a 50+ minute discuss and debate on one of the great preseason scouting games we’ll come across in a year. You have three way you can choose to consume the info...
1: Watch the video (link below)
2: Read the shorter A.I. Executive Summary of the video discussion, listed after the video link option.
3: Lastly on here, you can read the entire transcript of the show instead, put into a readable play-script format.
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Video, if you’d like to watch: https://youtu.be/HUR2pVTz8Vk
Two Scouts Talking: Executive Summary — ARI vs. LV (Preseason Week 1)
1. Arizona Wide Receiver Alignment & Rotation
Ross Jacobs brought this topic to the table as his top takeaway, highlighting a noticeable rotation concern in Arizona's receiver personnel. In single-receiver packages, the Cardinals deployed Marvin Harrison Jr. on the boundary. When shifting to two-receiver looks, Arizona regularly paired Marvin Harrison Jr. with Kendrick Bourne, leaving Michael Wilson on the sideline until three-receiver (11 personnel) packages were called. Ross Jacobs expressed serious concern that Michael Wilson’s volume could suffer if he is treated as the designated "off-the-ball move Z" option who gets subbed out during heavy two-tight-end or three-tight-end looks.
RC Fischer countered by noting that preseason rotations often feature intentional management of veteran snaps—pointing to how players like Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, and Jayden Reed were cycled in other matchups. However, RC Fischer agreed that if Kendrick Bourne remains ahead of Michael Wilson in two-receiver sets during the regular season, it presents a legitimate target-volume bottleneck. While Jacoby Brissett looked sharp connecting with Michael Wilson over the middle, both scouts recognized that Trey McBride remains the primary target vacuum in Arizona's passing attack.
2. Jeremiyah Love’s Explosive Debut & Backfield Dynamics
RC Fischer made Jeremiyah Love his primary takeaway of the night, singling out a jaw-dropping 15-yard interior run where Jeremiyah Love exploded through the line with dynamic acceleration and core movement traits that instantly translated against pro competition. RC Fischer noted that while he was already high on Jeremiyah Love entering the draft, seeing that level of elite movement skills in person confirmed his blue-chip ability and made him far more hesitant to trade away top Dynasty rookie draft picks.
At the same time, both RC Fischer and Ross Jacobs acknowledged the realistic hurdles facing the Arizona backfield. The Cardinals' offensive line gave up early penetration, and the loss of Chase Bisontis hurts the unit's overall push. Furthermore, Tyler Allgeier continues to run with power and consistency on early downs, presenting a direct threat to take away goal-line carries and early-down work—much like he did alongside Bijan Robinson in Atlanta—which could cap Jeremiyah Love's immediate ceiling.
3. Offensive Play-Calling & Scheme Architecture
Ross Jacobs emphasized how crisp and structured Arizona's offensive play-calling looked under Mike LaFleur, dispelling offseason worries that Nathaniel Hackett's involvement would create a dysfunctional unit. RC Fischer strongly agreed, noting that both Arizona and Las Vegas looked remarkably competent on offense compared to the sluggish preseason performances seen across the league last year.
RC Fischer pointed out that seeing first-team units operate smoothly in August is a crucial positive indicator, referencing how early-season offensive struggles for coaches like Matt Nagy or teams like Denver signaled long-term regular-season trouble. While Klint Kubiak's Las Vegas scheme leaned heavily on an upgraded interior offensive line featuring Tyler Linderbaum and Jackson Powers-Johnson, both scouts warned that the poor defensive play displayed by both Arizona and Las Vegas will make both teams prime targets for opposing fantasy players all season long.
4. Fernando Mendoza & The New Wave of Quarterbacks
RC Fischer argued that rookie Fernando Mendoza already looks like a superior, higher-upside passer than veteran Kirk Cousins. RC Fischer highlighted Fernando Mendoza's instant processing speed, pocket poise, and absolute lack of hesitation when zipping passes over the middle of the field, arguing that modern rookie quarterbacks are entering the league far more pro-ready than past generations like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady vs. Drew Henson.
While Ross Jacobs agreed that Kirk Cousins remains the logical choice to start Week 1 to protect Fernando Mendoza behind a developing line and spare him early hits, both scouts agreed that Fernando Mendoza's talent gap is obvious. RC Fischer added that this seamless transition among young passers—citing concurrent looks at rookies like Carson Beck, Will Howard, and Drew Allar—puts extreme pressure on struggling young veterans like Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, Tua Tagovailoa, or C.J. Stroud, as NFL franchises no longer need to wait years for quarterback development.
5. Las Vegas Backfield & The Impact of Ashton Jeanty & Mike Washington Jr.
Ross Jacobs highlighted Ashton Jeanty's interior patience and physical vision, noting how much better he looked once provided clear running lanes by Tyler Linderbaum and Jackson Powers-Johnson. RC Fischer built on this by breaking down the eye-opening performance of backup Mike Washington Jr., whose massive 230-pound frame and extraordinary side-to-side agility on a highlight run drew direct scouting comparisons to David Johnson and Darren McFadden.
While RC Fischer noted that Mike Washington Jr. still has hurdles to clear regarding ball security, interior vision, and playing behind Ashton Jeanty, his athletic upside makes him a high-priority second-round target in Dynasty rookie drafts. Ross Jacobs offered a historical player comparison of Latavius Murray, agreeing that Mike Washington Jr. possesses the rare size-speed combination that makes him an essential handcuff for anyone drafting Ashton Jeanty.
6. Las Vegas Receiver & Tight End Hierarchy
Ross Jacobs identified Tre Tucker as the undisputed WR1 for the Las Vegas Raiders' passing attack over Jalen Nailor, citing his distinct usage and speed profile. RC Fischer concurred, bringing up Jack Bech as his key note in the Las Vegas receiving corps. RC Fischer praised Jack Bech's reliable hands and spatial awareness in traffic, specifically pointing out a tough short-field touchdown catch from Fernando Mendoza where Jack Bech created separation in a crowded end zone.
The scouts also evaluated Michael Mayer, with Ross Jacobs noting that Michael Mayer looked noticeably leaner, faster, and more agile than in previous seasons under Antonio Pierce or Chip Kelly. Ross Jacobs drew loose comparisons to AJ Barner's movement style and suggested Michael Mayer could realistically function as the second or third target in 12 personnel packages alongside Brock Bowers.
7. Defensive Flashes & Secondary Player Notes
On the defensive side of the ball, RC Fischer highlighted Arizona defensive tackle Walter Nolen III, who recorded a sack and penetrated the backfield. RC Fischer noted that while Walter Nolen III struggled with health and consistency during his college career, his raw physical traits and splash plays show game-disrupting ability when fully engaged—comparing his ceiling-versus-effort dynamic to wide receiver George Pickens.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT version...
Two Scouts Talking: Cardinals vs. Raiders (Preseason Week 1)
Speakers:
- RC Fischer (RC)
- Ross Jacobs (Ross)
00:00 – Introduction & New Video Format
RC: Okay, new format attempt for the Two Scouts Talking videos. We are going to discuss our scouting of a preseason game, and we pre-selected the Week 1 Arizona Cardinals vs. Las Vegas Raiders game from last night. So we both watched the game, we have the game tape to be able to go back and break it down, rewind it, fast forward it, and do all those fun things. We wanted to scout it just for general purposes of how things were operating, but more specifically looking at specific players, especially the rookies.
We picked this game because obviously you’ve got Jeremiyah Love (11-58-0, 2-31-0/7) versus Fernando Mendoza (10-16 for 97 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 2-6-0) to scout. That could be an hour-long show just on those two players, but we’re going to try to keep it moving quickly. But we also want to discuss the things that we saw, and if we get into a conflict of something that we saw, we may linger on that for a little bit and try to flush it out.
So the format I’m proposing to do is: we took all of our scouting notes—and I have no idea what Ross has for his notes, he has no idea what I have for mine—rank them in order, and we’re just going to go through our top three and see what we have in common for notes. And then at the end, we’ll blow through the rest of our notes kind of quickly just so we can get the thoughts out there, get it on record.
So with that being said, before I turn to Ross and ask him for his number one takeaway from this game as a scout—it could be about the coaching, it could be about a player, it could be about a unit, who knows what it’s going to be—I just want to say to start out on this: this was one of the greatest preseason games we’ll probably see this season. And maybe it’s the greatest one of the past couple seasons. I can’t hardly remember the preseason games. I remember the player performances, but having Love versus Mendoza in this game with first-team offenses both playing for a couple series—this was a treasure trove for scouting.
I scouted and wrote up the Green Bay vs. Pittsburgh game late last night after the game. The best thing to come out of Pittsburgh vs. Green Bay was Trey Smack, the rookie kicker potentially. That wouldn’t even make my top 12 list of notes from this game. So this one’s going to be a hot one to debut on. I’m very excited for it because so many great things happened. I think there’s going to be a couple things that Ross and I take umbrage with from each other, but I’m going to say we’ll try to keep it to the scouting.
What we really want to see is: how does this person look? We already have a feeling for what Jacoby Brissett (5-5 for 44 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 0-0-0) is like—if he did something radically good or bad, it might make our top list, but I’m sure both of us focused on this: this is our chance to see Jeremiyah Love against real pro competition, not two-hand touch practices. How’s Mendoza going to do in his debut? And then there are a lot of other... I mean, I have a ton of notes, so it was hard to put a top three together. I have a legit seven things for the top three, and we’ll get to all of them, but we’re going to marinate on the top three.
With that being said, Ross Jacobs, what was your number one... most, when I say most impactful, I’m going to say it from your perspective: what left the greatest impression on you, whether it was a huge negative or a huge positive from this game? Coaches, players, or whatever—water boy—whatever it was that struck you, what’s your number one?
04:38 – Topic 1: Arizona Wide Receiver Alignment & Michael Wilson
Ross: The alignment of the Arizona wide receivers.
RC: Oh! I have that outside my top seven, but I’m glad... I knew you were going to focus on it. I didn’t know it was going to be your number one, so I’m going to sit back. I purposely didn’t put a lot into that because I knew you were going to, so I’m going to be a fascinated listener. Go ahead.
Ross: I know, and we’ll get to Michael Wilson (1-23-1/3), how he looked. I would be scared to death of—not scared to death, he’s going to play, he’s going to get the touches—based on how they aligned last night, I don’t know that you’re going to see the volume that you’re looking for. The problem was, when Arizona lined up with one receiver on the field, it was Marvin Harrison Jr. (1-17-0/7). When they lined up with two receivers on the field, it was Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kendrick Bourne (1-12-1/2). And Michael Wilson was only coming in on the three wide receiver sets.
RC: Is there any reason or excuse for that potentially? Because preseason games... like I watched Green Bay/Pittsburgh, and Christian Watson was in for a moment and then they got him the heck out of there. And Matthew Golden and Jayden Reed were working all the time, but they kept Watson out of it after the first couple plays.
Ross: Yeah, no. I mean, those three are going to be the starting three receivers. It’s specifically the roles that they’re playing. It’s one thing to say, "Oh, Michael Wilson’s going to play the Puka Nacua role." That’s the Z, that’s the off-the-ball move, he’s going to insert, he’s going to motion in the backfield. That’s great. It doesn’t mean he’s going to get that level of targeting, but he’s playing that role in the offense. That’s the first receiver that’s going to come off the field, and you saw that with Puka last year. He would be off the field when Davante Adams would be on the field. Davante had several games where he played way more snaps, and Puka came off because they would go to the three tight end, the four tight end, and you’ve got your X receiver out there. That’s going to be Marvin Harrison Jr.
RC: My counter to that would be: Puka had some pretty nice numbers for... I understand it, but there’s no Matthew Stafford and Puka versus Brissett and Mike Wilson in the same exact coming-in and coming-out situations. I fear that for Michael Wilson, right? Because Michael Wilson’s probably not going to get that same level of targeting that Puka is going to get, because Trey McBride is still the goat. He’s the guy.
Ross: I would agree. So we want Michael Wilson on the field as much as possible. He’s probably not going to be on the field as much as we would like.
RC: So do you think that—and I’m there with you as much as I don’t want it to be true, and I want to say NFL coaches can’t be this dumb, but they are—do you think that could be a plan that gets blown up after two weeks?
Ross: It’s possible. But specifically what I think people will lose their mind if Kendrick Bourne’s on the field more than Michael Wilson. That’s specifically what bugged me, because I would have assumed it would have been Wilson as the number two kind of guy on the field, but it was Bourne. I don’t know. It’s worrisome, and it very well could be: "This is the alignments, this is what we’re showing you." Possibly.
RC: I’m hoping... when I saw Michael Wilson jump in and jump out, I was hoping that it was more, "Hey, we’re treating him a little special. He didn’t have to be out there in the preseason." In the past, I think Marvin Harrison Jr. would have got the "you can play two snaps and then we’re going to get you the heck out of there." Christian Watson played two snaps and then they got him the heck out of there. But point taken that as much as we love Michael Wilson, he’s at risk of getting Lee-Floored, or getting Hackett-ed, or getting Marv-ed. And of course Marvin Harrison Jr. caught a touchdown pass, so now he’s the new number one receiver for the Cardinals. He’s their Davante Adams from social media. He’s not Davante Adams—not even close—but he is playing that role. They’re going to use him around the goal line a lot.
The good news with Michael Wilson is Brissett was looking for him. Well, Brissett, I think, has a way better connection for Wilson. Arizona's schedule and team is going to get them blown up right off the bat. They can want to be in all the 12 personnel and copy Sean McVay all that they want, but I think they’re going to wind up in three wide receiver sets. With McBride as the... a four wide receiver set is still going to be... that’s still by far the majority of the snaps you’re going to take. It doesn’t matter that you could take the heaviest 13 personnel team on the planet, they’re still going to be in 11 way more often than not.
All right, I’m scratching that off my list. That was my number nine topic.
Ross: Okay. It was shocking to me to see Bourne on the field ahead of Wilson.
10:48 – Topic 2: Jeremiah Love’s Breakthrough & Fantasy Outlook
RC: My number one... yeah, and I won’t say that this was the most impactful player or moment where it just rattled me either good or bad. This was good, but also knowing the weight of the player, knowing how important this player is—the gravity of the Jeremiyah Love situation. The number one Dynasty rookie draft pick, ADP... does he belong in the top 12 running backs? Is he going to get overdrafted because he’s a rookie and all that?
I had Jeremiyah Love as my number one topic, number one impact that I walked away from this—number two for me. I have two things I’m going to say. You can react to it, add to it, whatever. I’m going to do the good first.
That one 15-yard run of his up the middle was unfreaking believable. He looked like he was shot out of a damn cannon. He looked like he was something out of that... what’s that stupid movie? You probably love it. What’s that stupid movie my wife likes that’s like the dumbest movie in the history of the world? What’s the vampire one where they used to have Team Edward and Team whatever?
Ross: No, don’t even throw me in that. I’ve never seen it except for... I’ve seen the majority of it walking back and forth and having my wife watch it for the nine millionth time on TV. I think it’s the stupidest movie I think I’ve ever not seen, but seen.
RC: Those vampires would just move without touching the ground, they’d move in a hurry. That’s what Jeremiyah Love looked like on that one run! And I’m like, "Okay, all right. We’re against pro-level human beings and athletes moving around." That was something... I already knew he was good. I wasn’t against Jeremiyah Love. I was just like, "How good is he?"
When I saw that run, I’m like, "I am not going to question his movement skills against everybody else’s now."
Yeah, the downside: he plays for Arizona. He plays for Arizona, so he was getting locked down in the backfield quite a bit. If they try to pull off the Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kendrick Bourne two wide receiver looks, and the other team goes, "Beautiful, we don't have to double cover them, we can single cover them and stack up against Jeremiyah Love," he could have the Ashton Jeanty (3-16-0, 0-0-0/0) 2025 season very easily.
And it started out looking that way! I was just like, "We can't even get a good feel for Jeremiyah Love because he can't even get hardly to the line of scrimmage." Then when he had the opportunity to... I don't even know what level of defense it was against, I don't care. That was a stunning run. That's where I got to see his full speed and glory all in one moment.
And that may sound stupid to somebody listening going, "Oh, you saw one play and now you're whatever." You know it when you see it. In my 15-plus year career scouting, I have watched every single NFL game—preseason, regular season, playoff—and most all of them a second time minimum. Some of them for a third time. I’ll go back and study a player like we do on this channel; I’ll go back and study the season of a particular player and see him for a third time or a fourth time that way. I’ve scouted most of them in college, especially if they’re a high-profile like Jeremiyah Love, I’m going to do an in-depth scouting of their college work.
You can only get such a feel for like, "Is Jeremiyah Love successful at another level of success because Notre Dame’s offensive line is just better than their opponents?" That goes for Ohio State, that goes for Alabama and Georgia and all that too, as we’ve seen play out. It’ll expose frauds at the NFL level if they were a creation of their college program being so dominant. But there’s certain times where I see something... I say all that because I have a library in my brain of all of these players.
I can still remember David Johnson runs. I can tell you the first time I scouted Tyler Lockett. I could tell you the first time I saw Torrey Smith. Ricky Stanzi—I could tell you all about... I can’t remember what I did yesterday, but I could tell you about all of those things! So I believe I have a very good comparison AI brain for this stuff where when I see something that is different, that makes me go, "Holy crap," I know to lean into that because it’s something special.
Now, just because Jeremiyah Love had this one run, that doesn’t seal the case. There’s a whole fantasy argument: we’ve got to talk about the offensive line, we’ve got to talk about Nathaniel Hackett, we’ll do all that on Fantasy Football Metrics with our draft guide ratings and Dynasty rookie draft ratings, all that. But that was the best moment I’ve gotten from Jeremiyah Love in my history of watching him, back to Notre Dame. And I knew he was already good. So kind of confirming that he has that special "it" factor—I get it now. I don’t have to doubt it.
I’m still willing to trade him in... oh yeah, I’m willing to trade the 1.01 if somebody’s going to get crazy, but I’m now more cautious. I’m a little less cavalier. I was texting Ross last night during the game, got an offer with a client for the 1.01. It obviously was going to be Jeremiyah Love, and it involved other players, and it looked like a good exchange—getting basically two high-level players for one high-level player in Jeremiyah Love. Before that run, I was probably like, "Yeah, I should take the two big assets for the one asset." After I saw that run, I was like, "I don’t know. I might need to sleep on this one for a second." It was that impactful.
So that was my number one. Your number two?
Ross: That was my number two, yeah.
RC: And that doesn’t mean he’s not going to get crushed by the Arizona offensive line. I’m just going to mention it because it’s not in my top three, but it goes with your number one a little bit and my number one a bit: it looks like Jonah Savaiinaea is not good. If he would have been healthy and added to a decent offensive line, he would have been a great addition that would have really helped Jeremiyah Love, Brissett, Mike Wilson, the whole lot of them. Take Savaiinaea out, that is a hit. In a lot of circumstances, that would have been an easy top three for a game.
Ross: That’s my number six note, but I kept not wanting to say it because I was going to save it... I was like, well, it runs through a lot of what we’re talking about, so it needs to be mentioned.
18:49 – Topic 3: Arizona & Las Vegas Play-Calling & Coaching Staffs
RC: Okay, so Love was your number two. Let’s do your number three.
Ross: The Arizona play-calling. How everything was structured, how they were lining guys up. Mike LaFleur knows what he’s doing.
RC: I almost had that as my number one, but there’s so many other great things to talk about. I put it at number four, but it could very easily be number one. It’s such a long-term thing, and we worried that it was going to be a disaster, that Nathaniel Hackett might be involved in it too much. But this is two games where I walked away and go, "Okay, they know what they’re doing." I’m not saying he’s Ben Johnson 2.0 or Sean McVay, but it’s not horrible. It’s not Aaron Glenn, it’s not Jonathan Gannon, it’s not an ex-defensive coordinator turned head coach who hires bad offensive coordinators and the whole thing is Ashton Jeanty 2025. So I’m with you on that one.
I have one extra part of that, and why I almost should have really made it my number one, but I didn’t think it’d be as sexy as talking about the actual players: my note was both of these teams look like they know what the hell they’re doing—both offenses!
Ross: Yeah.
RC: Which is not... and I know you would know that. I know that you didn’t leave that out by mistake. It’s more of a shock. I knew Klint Kubiak would be fine.
Ross: We knew Kubiak, but I was really worried about LaFleur and especially Nathaniel Hackett. Is La Fleur going to be just a McVay puppet that, once he gets in there, can’t actually do it on his own? No. If he tries to build around Marv too long, that will be another problem sign, but what I’ve seen so far, I’m not scared.
There will be situations we will look at in the preseason and it will scare us. I was thinking about Matt Nagy—why this is so important to note that these offenses look a thousand times better than they did last year, which gives you a little bit of comfort for the season. But we also have to know about the offensive line as a factor. You can be a great play-call, and if you have a crappy offensive line, you’re toast.
I was thinking back when I was noting that, I was like, "Wow, what a difference a year makes, what a difference offensive coaches make compared to..." I would never hire an ex-defensive coordinator or a defensive coordinator and promote him up to be my head coach. Very, very rarely. Every now and then you’ll get a Mike Macdonald that knows how to do the management thing, but it’s rare, and he had the benefit of Kubiak. Hope that there’ll be continuity into this next year that they had a change.
I was thinking back... it’s simple to say, "Oh, this is preseason, of course." I mean, there is an element to that too, it’s the preseason, but you want to see things that are supposed to be good be good in the preseason! You want to see things that you’re not really sure about—are they good or are they bad?—you want to see them performing competently.
Ross: Yes!
RC: Because if the opposite happened, if they looked like a bunch of idiots, we’d be scared to death and we’d have to downgrade a whole bunch of Arizona stuff. Not that Arizona’s not going to lose the first nine games of the season because of the schedule—there’s going to be bumps and bruises—but I’m off the concern that Arizona’s going to be one of the worst coached teams in the league from an offensive standpoint.
When I was noting that last year, when I watched the Denver Broncos the entire preseason, they were running their first team out, and I kept saying every week, "Something’s wrong, something’s not right, this offense looks terrible." And people say, "Oh, it’s just the preseason." No! You want to look good. Looking good may be smooth operation. You don’t want to get too excited just because they look good, but I just don’t want them to look bad. And when Denver looked bad last year, what happened? They almost lost their opener to the Tennessee Titans in Week 1. I remember that because I bet heavy for Denver—they gave up seven and a half to Tennessee and won by eight, thank God. And then they lost the next two weeks and they were scoring in the teens for the majority of the first six weeks of the season.
That can happen! You can see it. I don’t think teams that look great on offense with their first team in the preseason are going to be bad when we hit the regular season, but I know for sure if you look bad in the preseason, you are not going to flip a switch unless you’re maybe the Rams or maybe the Bengals. But even the Bengals seem to lose Week 1, they usually start slow.
I just wanted to back that up—that Las Vegas belongs in that conversation too. Kubiak’s just such a great Shanahan-style professional, very polished. I mean, he was groomed for this, like Hackett was too, but Hackett was awful when he got the opportunity. La Fleur was groomed for this, but I had questions from their Jets time. If your first thought is, "Hey, I just got hired by Arizona, where’s Nathaniel Hackett at? I got to hire him for my offensive coordinator," I got problems with you at that point! So I’m not locked in on Arizona, but I’ll at least say I’m not as afraid as I was.
Ross: La Fleur may have hired Hackett just because he knows he can control him. He’s going to do what he says. Hackett must be a hell of a guy to be around. Aaron Rodgers loved him because I think he could take advantage of him.
RC: Yeah, I’m sure La Fleur can, because La Fleur, I assume, is calling all the plays.
Ross: Oh, he for sure was. And who was... Hackett was the best man at the Panthers defensive coordinator’s wedding—Ejiro Evero. He was his best man at his wedding! He’s around a lot of really talented people, people seem to like him, even when he seems like such a goof and that was one of the worst head coaching jobs in the history of the last 10 years of the NFL. But everybody seems to like him, he seems to find a job. He might be one of those relationship-type guys and just doesn’t know how to coach. Nothing wrong with that, knows part of it. There’s a role for it. Wish I was friends with him!
26:12 – Topic 4: Fernando Mendoza & The New Quarterback Era
RC: All right, my number two: Fernando Mendoza is better than Kirk Cousins (5-6 for 50 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 0-0-0) already.
I know Kirk Cousins is more experienced, and I know Kirk Cousins would be who I would start if I was Las Vegas, but talent-wise... if you had a parallel universe where you just started Kirk Cousins with this roster all 17 games, and you did the same with Mendoza, things would be better with Mendoza, even if it got out to a slow start for a week. I could clearly see Mendoza knows what he’s doing. There’s no fear, highly prepared, as we all suspected. But you want to see when they get into a game: do they have that "it"?
What amazes me, just to expand that out: so we’ve seen the Hall of Fame Game, Arizona/Las Vegas, and I watched and scouted the Green Bay/Pittsburgh game. Even Carson Beck, Will Howard, Drew Allar—they all came in and looked like they know what they’re doing. The young quarterbacks transitioning from college to the pros, there is no glitch! If you see a glitch, you better run, because there should be no glitch with these guys.
If there’s a young quarterback—trying to think of who might fit that situation—if there’s a quarterback that’s like a Bryce Young, they should be scared to death of this new wave of quarterbacks! Carolina should be looking in their personnel room going, "We’re not giving this guy an extension." There’s too many good quarterbacks now. There are teams with two better quarterbacks than Bryce Young!
Now Cousins being older and starting to fade away, and the young guys being better than him—I get better than Tua Tagovailoa, better than Cousins and all that because their time has passed. But if you’re in the modern era like Bryce Young, you better watch it. C.J. Stroud better watch... better step up this year or Houston should say, "We’re not paying you, you better prove it this year." We’re just not going to be like, "Oh, thank God we have a halfway competent quarterback, we got to give him four years, $150 million, we got to give him the Kyler Murray treatment, we got to give him the Deshaun Watson treatment."
You don’t have to do that from here on in! Quarterbacks, I dare say, are going to be a dime a dozen in the NFL. They’re becoming a dime a dozen in fantasy. I used to be the proponent of "everybody’s undervaluing the top quarterbacks." Now I’m with "they’re all so good, schedule and offensive line is going to be what separates them."
Ross: I agree on the not jumping to pay them. At the same time, I’m also not a proponent of how quickly people are ditching quarterbacks and going, "Oh, you’re not good enough, you’re not performing well enough." And it’s like, you got to look at the circumstances—you don’t have the team around you, you have to have that too.
RC: Except for you can do that if you’re a bad organization and know that if you do ditch whoever, you’ve got a good chance of getting somebody back in replacement that’s either might have hit the lucky mark and gotten one of the great ones coming out of college, or you get a veteran that’s... you get a Baker Mayfield who’s being disrespected and you’re able to acquire him and get lucky that way.
Ross: Bad organizations are always the ones ditching the actual good quarterbacks because they think they’re bad because the rest of the team is bad! And then they’re never going to fix the actual problem.
RC: Yeah, it’s not that they’re bad, but now your patience has to wear super thin. You see Anthony Richardson and you’re like, "I can’t..." Not in this era, I can’t groom you for four years!
Ross: Don’t get me started on the Richardson thing! They scored 27 points a game when he was starting, I don’t care if his completion percentage is 46%!
RC: So you like Caleb Williams now? You’re with me there? Caleb Williams MVP?
Ross: I’m not saying that! All I’ve argued with Caleb Williams is people already calling him elite. He’s not elite yet. He could get there, he’s not there yet.
RC: I think he’s on the doorstep of elite, and steps over the door into it if he improves the accuracy, if he improves the processing—which could very well happen, should very well happen. If he was with Aaron Glenn, we’re not having this conversation, he’s screwed. But if he’s with... who was he with before? If he’s with Matt Eberflus, then we’re not having this conversation.
So back to Mendoza/Cousins. Were you looking at it and going, "Mendoza’s ready already"? I mean, there’s going to be bumps and bruises if you start a rookie, but those bumps and bruises with rookies are getting much lower and rarer. Used to be 5-10 years ago, a rookie quarterback would go into a preseason start and we’d all hold our breath. They’d usually throw a pick-six within the first four throws and go, "Ah, but that’s okay. Remember Peyton Manning had 28 interceptions his first year, so it’s all right." Not in this era! You better hit the ground running, and Mendoza did that.
The coaching has gotten so much better, the schemes have gotten so much better. By the time Mendoza was in eighth grade, he probably threw more passes than Drew Henson had his entire football career! Because they have 7-on-7 camps and leagues and all of that stuff, and in college they just open it up and they’re not playing smashmouth football anymore, they’re playing spread it out and throw it.
Ross: Some of that quick operation is coaches scheming up very simple stuff. To get to the higher-level football, which I really think is about to have to come back because of what defenses are doing, it’s going to take some development. There’s things you can do, but peak Cousins? No, you’re for sure starting Cousins. But current Cousins? I can see the case that if you wanted to, you could start Mendoza now and it’d probably be better. But for the Raiders, who are not going to win the Super Bowl this year, you should start Cousins. Let Mendoza... just give him as much time as he can. Don’t let him get an ACL, let him learn by watching, and then eventually let him learn by playing. You don’t have to throw him out there Week 1 and get him killed and get him the yips because he’s getting blown up behind a bad offensive line. Although this is a much better offensive line with the back healthy. It’s the receivers I’m a little worried about with him.
All right, that was my two. So your three to wrap up the top threes?
Ross: We already got my three.
RC: Oh, your three was the scheme! Both of the offenses are in great hands and look good.
34:14 – Topic 5: Defenses & Ashton Jeanty
ROSS: Both of these defenses are utter garbage! Utter garbage, both of them. It’s definitely going to be two to target every week. That may be the two worst defenses in the entire league!
RC: I will say this to try to give one positive in all that: I liked the energy that the Raiders played with. The Raiders are playing on both sides of the football like a real football team. Arizona still feels a little "substitute teacher is our head coach and this is going to implode fast." The Raiders seemed very buttoned up and don’t feel like they’re the Raiders. I would not be shocked if the Raiders finished ahead of the Chiefs this year. Bold words!
All right, so I’ve got my number three left on the board.
I saw it with Ashton Jeanty. I saw that interior runner that can be physical, but also avoidance. I think he just needs some space, man! And part of this my number three is this Raiders offensive line is so much better than it was last year—part of it on injury, but also you signed Tyler Linderbaum, and Kubiak could be a top five head coach for offense. You put all those components in, when they were running Jeanty up the middle with Linderbaum and Jackson Powers-Johnson back, he then had the ability to get up to speed. When he would run up the middle, it wasn't like it was already walled off and he had to stop or ram into stuff. There was space for him to hit the accelerator and work, and I was like, "Oh, this is definitely going to be a good thing."
You just want to see the difference when somebody has a competent or a better offensive line, or just not running behind a terrible offensive line.
36:58 – Topic 6: Michael Mayer, Mike Washington & The Secondary Notes
RC: Normally I’d say let’s speed it up from here and close it out, but I so loved this game for notes, I don’t want to end it! I don’t care if everybody clicks off, I don’t care if YouTube doesn’t like that we’re running long. If you’re clicking off after three minutes of this, then you didn’t intend to listen to it anyway, so let’s keep going. Your next one?
Ross: Michael Mayer (2-19-1/3) looked slimmed down, looked quicker. Dare I say a little AJ Barner-esque maybe?
RC: I don’t think he’s going to be running the tush push for them, but I just mean... is he going to get surpassed by Elijah Arroyo?
ROSS: They do different things, same thing with Brock Bowers and Mayer. Those two are going to exist on the field. Given their wide receiver group, there’s going to be a lot of 12. I wouldn’t be totally shocked to see Mayer be the second receiver on the team, maybe third behind Jeanty. He’s going to play. All I’m saying is he looked... that’s the best I’ve ever seen him look.
RC: We got to see him in a competent offense and Bowers not being there specifically.
Ross: Scheme aside, I thought he looked faster than I’ve ever seen him, more agile than I’ve ever seen. His two coaching staffs were Antonio Pierce and the Carroll/Chip Kelly retirement padding year.
RC: I’m down to my number five as my next one, which really could make a case to be my number one, but given the context of the player, I didn’t think it warranted to be up to number one. But it’s probably going to be the thing I remember the most from this game.
That Mike Washington Jr. (6-63-0, 0-0-0/0) run was freaking unbelievable! It was impressive. I know if that safety was halfway decent, he would have never got past six yards. Let me say the obvious negatives, and then let me come back to it: I know Mike Washington Jr. has ball security issues. I know there may be an issue of just his vision running the ball, especially when real first-team defenses are in, it’s going to make a lot of these guys look a lot different, especially if the O-line isn’t that good. I fear that Jeremiyah Love’s going to be stunted a little bit because of that.
But for what it was, his ability to shift a 230-pound man moving like that... if he was 195, I would go, "Okay." Jump cut, jump cut! The only other person that I’ve seen look like that is David Johnson.
It was really impressive. I am now sucked in. I am now going after Mike Washington Jr. as long as I don’t have to pay too much for it in a Dynasty rookie draft, because no matter how good he looks, he’s going to be stuck behind Jeanty. But that’s a hell of a guy to have as your number two. You don’t have to rely on him to save your team, but you give him a couple of screens, give him a couple relief carries—at 230 pounds, moves like he’s 205.
The first time we ever saw him at Arkansas, we’re like, "He’s not 220-plus, he’s like 210, 205. What are these teams doing?" And then he comes in at 223 at the Senior Bowl, and I think maybe it was 228 at the Combine. That guy at that size—all I thought was: that looks like David Johnson. And when I invoke the name of David Johnson, it gets serious, because there’s no higher compliment for me of a running back than to say you kind of look like David Johnson. But he also looked like Darren McFadden ate Darren McFadden and still had Darren McFadden’s speed and movement skills!
Ross: I don’t know that he’s got David’s... I would just say pure side-to-side agility of the cutting. David Johnson could do that jump step—nobody’s as good as David Johnson turning a corner.
RC: Gale Sayers isn’t as good; Barry Sanders isn’t as good as David Johnson in my mind! But getting downhill fast...
RC: He shifted a great distance across with no hesitation, where he was just floating. He wasn’t running on the ground, he was literally twilighting through defenders and past defenders! He’s probably the one guy in this that I had an opinion of, and then the change-up of opinion was the greatest one where I was like, "I know there’s a lot ahead, he’ll have to back up Jeanty, real first-team defenses, ball security issues, experience level running the interior." There’s a lot of hurdles to still overcome, but when I started thinking about the Dynasty rookie draft and that second round, I want to take guys that are going to make a difference. You can have Nicholas Singleton and Antonio Williams and all those mediocre guys we’re not even going to remember two or three years from now, the new-age Jahan Dotsons of the world. So I’m not against taking the big swing and going, "Is Mike Washington Jr. going to be another David Johnson?"
The problem is that’s too far to say after one showing, and he has one of the greats in Ashton Jeanty ahead of him. But if you have Ashton Jeanty, you’ve got to have Mike Washington Jr.!
Ross: The comp I’ve always given for Mike Washington Jr. was Latavius Murray.
RC: Latavius Murray! And Murray had some really good seasons back in the day. He was a unicorn in his time.
Adam Randall when we see the Ravens, Phil Mafah in Dallas—Mafah can move, but he doesn’t have speed like that. Mafah’s more physical, but I’m still going to go with Latavius Murray. That’s not a put-down at all, Murray was a good player. He was a unicorn of his time—tight end/H-back turned running back, ran four-threes at 220-plus pounds. That was unheard of at the time.
RC: Okay, what’s your next one?
45:48 – Topic 7: Las Vegas Receiver Hierarchy (Tucker, Bech, Naylor)
Ross: Tre Tucker (2-21-0/6). Clear wide receiver one for the Raiders. It’s not Jalen Nailor, it’s Tre Tucker.
RC: I thought the way they were using him... Jack Bech (4-35-1/10) was my next note with Tre Tucker. That was what I wanted to see from Jack Bech. We finally saw Mendoza looking for him, being that taller, lesser Cooper Kupp type of receiver. To me, he’s got the technical skills. Chris Hogan came from lacrosse and developed himself into a great athlete who played wide receiver and was pretty decent at it. Bech has got #1 WR skills/ability perhaps...
Ross: I don’t know about number one ability, I don’t think it’s there right now
RC: but I think he’s got that in him that he could be the Michael Thomas / Cooper Kupp where they just get open.
Ross: I didn’t see "super getting open," it was just the reliability and making the tough catches when they needed them.
RC: The short field touchdown—he had to make a move, left his defender flatfooted, and got that slight opening. Mendoza threw it to him as if he wasn’t even looking for anybody else, right in the middle of the field in a crowd. It was the throw to make, and he made it.
I watched the Pittsburgh/Green Bay game—Drew Allar wouldn’t make that throw. Drew Allar would be afraid to throw it over the middle. Mendoza puts him to shame! In Pittsburgh right now, it’s like Carson Beck’s going to be Kurt Warner and Drew Allar’s Big Ben... no, that’s not happening.
After watching last night, I would say it’s Tucker and Bech, and Nailor’s going to be the in-and-out three deep-bomb play. Cousins was working Tucker; Mendoza was working Bech.
49:45 – Rapid Fire Remaining Notes & Wrap-Up
RC: Those are all the high-level notes. I’m just going to rip through my remaining notes to get them out there.
When Jeremiyah Love started, I’m like, "Okay, they didn’t give the start to Tyler Allgeier (4-19-0, 0-0-0/0), that’s good." I thought for a bit in camp they were pushing Allgeier as the number one, but Love got the start. Allgeier came in and looked like his professional self, did a good job, but then Love started getting his feet on the ground and you’re like, "You can’t be messing around with Tyler Allgeier too much when you’ve got Jeremiyah Love."
Ross: They’re going to use him though. Allgeier’s going to be a little bit of a thorn in Love’s side, like what happened to Bijan Robinson his rookie year—taking half the goal-line carries and holding Love back from being a true RB1. If I was Arizona, I’d consider trading Allgeier, but they’ll keep him.
RC: Then the only other note: Walter Nolen III (2 tackles, 1.0 sacks, 1 TFLs, 0 PDs, 1 QB HT) got a sack. When that guy’s on, he’s a talented defensive tackle. Inconsistent and hurt in college, but when he got his chance last year and again here, he looked really good. If he can stay on the field, he’s got it—just like George Pickens, he could be great if he wants to be.
You got any notes left to spill out?
Ross: That covered most of it! Incredibly enjoyable watch.
RC: The next one of these we do is probably going to be such a massive letdown by comparison! But I’m glad we got to see this one and bounce the ideas. We’ll have more information on this game with a posted game report on Fantasy Football Metrics. We do every game of the preseason—filed report, mostly available free view on Fantasy Football Metrics.
Enjoyed this one! On to preseason Friday.
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