11 instant overreactions to NFL preseason Week 1: Falcons and Commanders are toast

We made it through one week of preseason games. A whole lot of it was ugly, but we only have to do it two more times … However, it was football, and we did watch it. That means it was a good weekend.

The thing about the preseason is that it’s tough to suss out what’s real from what’s not real. Teams are running schemes and plays that are just a shadow of what they will actually run, and most of the guys on the field are far from the talent that we’ll be watching on Sundays in the fall.

That being said, it’s the first time we’ve seen these teams this year, so that means we get to overreact. So let’s make believe we’re calling into a weekday radio show and make some straight-up bombastic and borderline-dangerous statements.

Gut reactions to the first week of preseason games

The Falcons’ season is over

It’s always a good idea to get a quarterback for cheap, and the Falcons had the right idea when they signed Tua Tagovailoa for a league minimum $1.2 million ... You know … The other side of that coin is that there are reasons quarterbacks like that are available for $1.2 million. On the Falcons’ second offensive play of the game (the first pass play), the snap hit Tua in the hands, and he fumbled it. He ended up looking terrible in his limited time (three of five for 22 yards).

The Vikings’ locker room is dysfunctional

Did you know Carson Wentz is still playing football? I totally forgot about that. I thought he would’ve hung it up last year after he got abused during that Week 8 game against the Chargers … But no, that ol’ hunting dog is still out there … well, hunting.

There’s always a lot of talk about teams trying to build their wide receiver groups like a basketball team; that you don’t want a bunch of guys that do the same thing. The Vikings took that idea and did it with their quarterback room, but with their personalities. Kyler Murray is infamously a big video game guy, J.J. McCarthy is a unique mix of hippie and Pit Viper guy, and Wentz just wants to head out to the ranch and shoot birds.

The Commanders’ season is hanging on by a burnt thread

Injuries happen in football, and sure enough, there are going to be injuries in preseason games. Trent Green in 1999, Michael Vick in 2003, and Jordy Nelson in 2015 … It happens. All you can hope is that it doesn’t happen to a guy who’s going to be a key piece. Unfortunately for the Commanders, Marcus Mariota lasted four plays before he left the game with an MRI-worthy knee injury.

It was non-contact, and he didn’t fall to the ground writhing in pain, so that’s good … But he’s 32 years old, and even an MCL can be a season-ender … And even if it’s not a season-ender, it’s certainly going to be a season-affecter. And for a guy that’s QB2 behind an undersized and mobile quarterback coming off a 2025 season that was plagued by injuries (No. REDACTED, Jayden Daniels), a usable QB2 is going to be important.

Behind Mariota is Sam Hartman, who is bad as he is handsome. That’s not where you want to be.

Jaxon Dart will forget his name by Week 4

They say the human body craves contact. If that’s the case, Jaxon Dart’s brain is constantly jonesing for contact with the inside of his skull. It took exactly one quarter of preseason football for Dart to find his way into the medical tent to get tested for a concussion.

NFL's sideline apparel is worth buying for once

Every year, the NFL releases new league-wide sideline apparel. Sometimes it looks like hot garbage, but this year, they nailed it. It’s a solid colored shirt with the team’s name in big slanted letters, the city underneath, and the logo under that. They’re sick.

I will buy 30 tomorrow, and I won’t wear anything else for the next six months.

Chiefs have a very real pass rush

It’s tough to see what players can actually do in preseason games, but every once in a while you get a play where they shine. When the Chiefs drafted R Mason Thomas in the second round, it was because he was an EDGE with big-time explosiveness off the line, and incredible speed when he’s in the backfield.

Rams will be good after Matthew Stafford retires

On the last play of the first half, the Rams were trying to take a deep shot into the end zone. For that, Ty Simpson (who was pretty good in his debut) needed time to let the play develop and space to load up. Thomas was having none of that. He came from across the field to force an early and bad throw. It was pretty cool to watch.

Arch Manning wears a Titans jersey in 2027

The general idea for playing your starting quarterback in a preseason game is so that they can get some easy reps, move the ball, and shake the cob webs off. Anything other than that should be perceived as a failure. Cam Ward failed. He played in the first three offensive series, and every single thing looked hard for him. He ended the day 5 of 12 for 57 yards. That doesn’t include a hilariously bad 16-yard intentional grounding that put the Titans on their own three-yard-line.

Fire Sean Mannion, and fire Kevin Patullo again just for good measure

All of the news coming out of Philadelphia this spring and summer has been about how Sean Mannion’s offense is going to be the best thing in the world and how it’s going to be completely different from anything we’ve seen from the Eagles in the Nick Sirianni era. On Saturday evening, the Eagles punted nine straight times, had six three-and-outs, three first downs, and had 159 total yards on offense (59 of which came on the last drive). So … Pretty much the same thing as last year.

Bengals will score six points (~30% fewer than 2025) in Week 1

For some reason, Zac Taylor thought the reason the Bengals started their seasons slow was that their starters didn’t get reps in the preseason … and not because Joe Burrow was constantly coming back from injuries. So in 2025, he decided he was going to let his starters, and his proven and fragile quarterback, play extended series in preseason games.

In that first preseason game, Burrow went 9 of 10 for 123 yards and threw a pair of touchdowns against the Eagles' backup defense. In Week 1, that offense only scored 17 ugly points; it was not the fast start.

This year, Taylor kept that same preseason mindset. But this time, Burrow went five of six for 39 yards (~30% of 2025) and took a very violent sack against a much less talented Lions defense. It was bad, but was it worth it? We’ll see.

2026 NFL season is just going to be ref ball

This offseason, there was a little bit of a dispute between the NFL and the refs where it took them down to the wire to agree on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). One week of preseason games into the season, it looks like the refs are still a little salty about the whole thing because they called a total of 242 penalties; that’s 7.6 penalties per team, per game. In the 2025 season, the average was 6.3 penalties per team, per game … So if it seemed like there were a bunch this weekend, that’s because there were. And obviously, that’s something that's going to carry over into the regular season.

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