An entire week of preseason football is officially in the books and holy heck, that is super-exciting. Some of our pre-conceived thoughts and opinions are proving to be accurate while others need some more time in the oven. So it goes in the preseason.
Every week here at The Skinny Post, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, do our best to keep things calm in the name of assessing the game that we all love.
We have attempted to do this once more. Here we go.
True or False: Trey Lance has changed the trajectory of his career
After being traded from the 49ers to the Cowboys two offseasons ago in exchange for a fourth-round pick, Trey Lance was hoping that was the fresh start he needed. Unfortunately, he had a pretty disastrous preseason (threw five picks against the Chargers in the preseason finale) before appearing in four regular season games where he threw no touchdowns to a single interception.
The Cowboys would move on from Lance after just two seasons. When things looked most bleak, the Chargers swooped in and picked him up in order to provide competition this offseason with backup Taylor Heinicke. The thing is, Lance has been far and away the better player this offseason. After throwing two scores and no picks during the Hall of Fame Game, Lance followed that performance up with another solid outing where he utilized his legs to keep drives alive while also finding the end zone on a 5-yard jaunt.
On the other side, Heinicke saw his first action this preseason but turned in a 1-for-5 stat line that included only eight passing yards and a number of missed throws.
It’s early, and Heinicke still obviously has way more starting experience in this league, but Lance might honestly have the backup gig locked down if final cuts were this week. That’s one heck of a turnaround from this time a season ago.
Let me first say that I am rooting for Trey Lance in his career and hoping that he has a chance for some legitimate development. He obviously has not really had that opportunity.
As our resident Dallas Cowboys Dude around here I feel pretty qualified to discuss this. Consider that Dak Prescott was hurt in the team’s eighth game last season and that they did not give a serious look to Trey Lance until the meaningless season finale. That wasn’t so much about Trey as it was about other factors, but he clearly has been in need of an opportunity specifically like the preseason so that he can develop.
While it has been nice to see him shine in a handful of moments I am simply not ready to say that he has turned anything around. I supposed the trajectory was technically headed due south and so in not moving that way anymore he has changed it. I just think we need to see more.
Can Bryce Young get his career on track this season?
If there is a player who I feel this way about or at least feel like I have the potential to feel this way about them… it is Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young.
We all wrote Bryce off WAY too fast and some of it was because the jokes and memes were fun. Such is life sometimes.
To be clear my point is not that I think Young is going to light the world on fire anytime soon, but I totally believe that the potential for him to turn into a viable franchise quarterback absolutely exists.
If Young can play like he did in his lone drive against the Browns, then I do believe there is some untapped territory left in his game. Also, if Tetairoa McMillan also continues to make big plays like he did in that same game, then heck yeah I think Young has his best ball ahead of him.
This will be the first season where Young has four legitimate receivers to throw to in Tet, Adam Thielen, Xavier Legette, and Jacob Coker. Chuba Hubbard also provides a nice high floor/high ceiling outlook for the running game.
The only thing that worries me is that I still see Young in clips from practice and immediately think he’s some random dude in a Panthers jersey. He does not look the part and it isn’t just about his height.
What did you think of Shedeur Sanders’ debut?
With injuries currently limiting fellow rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett, Shedeur Sanders got the chance to start the Browns’ first preseason game this past Friday against the Panthers. Going into the game, head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters that Sanders would play around 50 snaps which is a massive sample size for a rookie’s first NFL game.
The 2025 fifth-round pick finished with 138 yards and two scores on 14-of-23 passing with no interceptions. While he did have some negative plays on the day, including instances of drifting too much in the pocket and into danger (something he did too much of in college), it was overall a positive outing for a guy the Browns had labeled as their QB4. He didn’t turn the ball over and even made some plays with his legs when needed.
I think this was an awesome and successful start to his NFL career given the circumstances and I’m excited to continue watching him play this preseason.
Ultimately I think that it is hard to come away with any strong takes about anything in the preseason. I think we all agree with that.
That being said, I do think that you can make the most of the situation and certainly feel that this is what Shedeur did. He played the way a lot of people thought he could, but he also played in a way that some said was impossible. The context of the moment is necessary, sure, but ultimately I am interested to continue to watch him.
How worried are you about the Matthew Stafford situation?
The Rams are acting very strange about this Stafford situation in my opinion.
Is he healthy? Is he going to play? Is he going to practice? These feel like fair questions.
More than anything, it feels fair for Sean McVay to have to answer them. I have always found it amazing, and Michael will agree, that the Rams kind of dodge any spotlight on intense and important matters. Remember a few years ago when there were reports that Cam Akers was never going to play for the team because a relationship had been damaged? And then a few weeks later how he was totally fine playing for the team?
The Rams play in a MASSIVE media market and for some reason are pretty invisible in this sense. I mean, their literal franchise quarterback who won a Super Bowl for them is sort of an ongoing question mark and people are just shrugging their shoulders.
I don’t have much to add here because you’ve hit it all on the head.
At first when I read the news about the epidural I thought that sounded pretty bad. Then when he did not practice on Monday despite all reports coming from Sean McVay about how the expectation was Stafford at minimum doing individual drills, it now leads me to believe that this is actually much worse than the team is making it seem.
I still think the Rams only go as far as Stafford goes this year and I am not a big believer in Jimmy G, regardless of who he is throwing to. If Stafford is not anywhere near 100 percent and this particular problem lingers, I am VERY worried about this whole thing.
