Depending on which coach you talk to, football really starts here, during offseason training activities. Or, OTAs just test their ability to pray into existence a clean bill of health for their most important players. That’s probably more like it.
Either way, plenty of questions exist about the state of each roster. By design, not every team can be perfect (until Amazon prods owners to create AI-based franchises that trounce every team every week to bring in sentient robot viewership). With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most pressing questions we’d like answered during the next few weeks of practice before summer break.
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1. Can Trey Lance make the 49ers’ quarterback situation more complicated, or at least more interesting?
Lance has reportedly compacted his throwing motion after working alongside Patrick Mahomes and with private QB coach Jeff Christensen. For those who are wary of the I’m-in-the-best-shape-of-my-life jargon that underlines so much of the discourse this time of year, I would say this: Quarterback is a position where a play can change dramatically with the right help. We’ve seen it over a significant sample size. I’m curious as to whether Lance can push the 49ers to the point where they feel absolutely comfortable starting him Week 1, pushing back the return of Brock Purdy. At the very least, I’m wondering whether Lance could end up being who we hoped he would be during his rookie season: a change-of-pace quarterback who was good enough to enter games specifically to alter the defense’s math. As good as Purdy has been, he doesn’t fulfill the one aspect of the offense that Kyle Shanahan has desired most: to diversify the quarterback position with a true hybrid runner and passer. Now would be a good time for Lance to put some distance between himself and Sam Darnold.
2. What do the Browns really think of their offense?
The Browns were the beneficiaries of Elijah Moore’s exile from the Jets, which should have signaled their relative discomfort with the personnel catching passes from Deshaun Watson. I can’t understate this enough: If this offense flatlines in 2023, it will look absolutely ridiculous. The Browns will be so much more Browns than they’ve ever been. I think Kevin Stefanski knows this, but more importantly, I think Andrew Berry knows this. The GM’s name is going to end up being the most synonymous with the Watson trade, and thus, there is pressure for him to surround Watson with the requisite weapons to expedite his success in Cleveland. I’m sure Watson will be fine, but these next few weeks we should give a sense of whether that means fine enough to sit back and relax or fine, but we better figure out a way to get DeAndre Hopkins.
3. Will the Vikings’ secondary begin to gel?
The Vikings’ secondary is, to put it generously, open for competition. Perhaps that is how new coordinator Brian Flores likes it. Obviously, his defensive roots in the Bill Belichick tree put a lot of stress on the cornerback position. Cornerbacks need to not only have good instincts, but the sense to play together in something of a coordinated dance. He also needs corners who are going to be intimately involved in the running game, given that the Lions, Packers and Bears are each on their schedule twice a year. Joejuan Williams was one of the Vikings’ offseason adds from New England, and, despite having missed last season, he could provide a bit of a stylistic archetype for the rest of the defense. After watching the opposite side of the ball get throttled with regularity in 2022, Kevin O’Connell pivoted away from a more popular Vic Fangio–style defense that the Vikings didn’t really have the personnel to play. The hope is that they can install something a little more guerilla that can withstand the diverse sets of offenses on their schedule.
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4. How will the Cowboys’ running back depth chart fill out?
I feel like I’m the only one who is slightly concerned about Dallas’s plan (for now) to put a massive workload on the back of Tony Pollard without a high-end backup outside of Ronald Jones. It’s why I think an Ezekiel Elliott reunion would make some sense, if only to take some responsibility off Pollard’s plate. It’s worth watching the position group in OTAs, especially to see how comfortable each of the backs are installing all of the pass protection and working with the quarterbacks to become a part of the passing game. So much of what the Cowboys want to do offensively is predicated on their ability to shove the ball down an opponent’s throat, or at least pepper the first one to five yards off the line of scrimmage with some checkdown passes. Pollard is coming off a significant injury, which is worth remembering. He broke his leg and sustained a high ankle sprain in the playoffs.
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5. How does Darren Waller look?
This is one of those offseason moves that will fly under the radar until it’s Week 7 and Waller either has five touchdowns and is pacing the Giants’ offense, or he’s nowhere to be found. I’m confident in the former. This doesn’t seem like a regime that makes a ton of mistakes from a personnel acquisition standpoint. If Waller can emerge as a matchup nightmare in this offense, I think we’ll see some seriously innovative football out of the Giants. The Giants used 12-personnel a decent amount last season, but it was obvious Brian Daboll wanted to do it more. He skewed away from 11-personnel (three wide receivers, one running back, one tight end) more than a lot of his counterparts and has a perfect complementary No. 2 tight end in Daniel Bellinger, who is among the best run blockers in the NFL. You might ask: Really? Darren Waller? Out of all the stuff we could talk about in New York? My response is that he is a catalyst in an offense that can be a major disruptor in the 2023 season. The Giants were absolutely bludgeoned by the scheduling committee this year, but that means there are plenty of opportunities for them to stick it to the NFL’s elite teams week in and week out (mostly on short rest).
6. Can John Metchie III progress and elevate the Texans and their rookie quarterback?
Of course C.J. Stroud is interesting. But remember Metchie? The 2022 second-round pick out of Alabama missed his rookie season following a leukemia diagnosis. Before that, he was recovering from an ACL tear. Still, that hasn’t slowed the hype train, or at least the Texans’ willingness to speak highly of him as an eventual contributor to this offense. At the moment, Metchie is nursing a strained hamstring, and it seems as though they’ll be cautious with him until training camp. In the meantime, we can glean what his role may be from what the Texans do in the interim (whether they’ll add any more receivers to their camp rotation, for instance). I don’t want to put any more on Metchie’s plate than he’s already received. For the lot of us, recovering from leukemia is enough of a project for one lifetime. To add in that he is somehow responsible for reshaping the Texans under DeMeco Ryans feels irresponsible and inaccurate. But it’s a comeback story we’re all pulling for.
I was kind of blown away that a Mike McDaniel–coached football team, which spent a fair amount of time starting backup quarterbacks, was 31st in rushing attempts last season. I don’t imagine that will be the case in 2023. It was obvious how worn down the Dolphins’ speedy wide receivers were at the end of the year and also pretty clear that Miami added some backfield speed during the draft to negate some of the dirty work being done by Tyreek Hill. This is a capital-P Professional group of running backs, with Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson Jr. and Myles Gaskin all on the depth chart, along with third-round rookie Devon Achane.
