NFL preseason and training camp live updates (2024)

The final week of the NFL preseason is here and cutdown day isn't far behind.

Last week around the league, rookie quarterbacks continued to wow from Jayden Daniels standing tall, Denver's Bo Nix and New England's Drake Maye taking steps toward QB1 status on their respective teams and Caleb Williams showcasing his improvisation skills.

Speaking of improvisation, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes successfully pulled off a behind-the-pack pass in Saturday's preseason game against the Detroit Lions.

Elsewhere, while one QB competition is over in Las Vegas, another continues to brew in Pittsburgh.

New England Patriots edge rusher Matthew Judon was traded to the Atlanta Falcons, who also signed safety Justin Simmons.

A few contract situations remain in the spotlight, too, with Dallas Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb and QB Dak Prescott still at the negotiating table.

What else will unfold? Stay tuned here and be sure to keep refreshing the blog for the latest from The Athletic's NFL beat reporters.

Required reading

• Preseason Week 3 schedule
• 2024 fantasy football draft kit
• NFL Projection Model, AFC win totals

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Find the best deals on tickets to see your favorite teams.

Dallas Cowboys second-year kicker Brandon Aubrey continues to amaze with his accuracy and leg strength. A year ago, Aubrey was just trying to make the team. On Saturday, he nailed a 66-yarder against the Raiders.

Read more here.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Matthew Judon told Raheem Morris what he could expect when the veteran pass rusher arrived in Atlanta. The conversation took place last week during a FaceTime call after the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots had begun trade talks involving Judon.

“Judon is telling you exactly what he’s going to bring you, that dog mentality, and he didn’t use ‘dog.’ He used a different word, but I loved it,” said Morris, Atlanta’s first-year head coach. “I’m like, ‘Yes, bring him.’”

Judon arrived for his first Falcons practice Monday along with veteran safety Justin Simmons, whom the team signed to a free-agency deal Thursday, one day after completing the trade for Judon. Judon wore his traditional red-sleeved hoodie under his practice jersey and even got a handful of the snaps with the starters.

After that first practice, he told the media a sanitized version of what he told Morris.

“I’m not going to set a goal, but I’m just going to go out there and play with reckless abandon,” he said. “That’s the mission. The mission is just go and destroy everything out there.”

Read more here.

At this point, Ja’Lynn Polk likely will be one of the starting wide receivers when Week 1 arrives, at least until Kendrick Bourne returns from injury. Polk’s training camp hasn’t been spectacular or filled with other-worldly catches, but he has been consistent and done enough for the quarterbacks to trust him.

Demario Douglas probably has been the best wide receiver, but Polk isn’t far behind. He might start behind K.J. Osborn on the depth chart, but optimism is high around the second-round pick out of Washington.

Read more here.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Coach Matt Eberflus said Tuesday that the majority of the Chicago Bears’ starters won’t play in their preseason finale Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs.

That includes rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. His preseason work concluded with 43 snaps – and a handful of impressive plays, including his touchdown run against the Cincinnati Bengals at Soldier Field.

Eberflus liked what saw from Williams before the snap, starting with calling plays in the huddle to recognizing how much time he had on the play clock to getting his teammates correctly aligned to scanning the defense.

“I think it’s been clean and then post-snap he’s been relatively good in terms of going through his progressions, making good decisions, taking care of the football in the pocket with two hands and moving around there when he does have to do that,” Eberflus said. “But overall I thought, a good preseason for him.”

The Giants haven’t carried three quarterbacks in the first two years of this regime. Tommy DeVito could force a change this year.

Coach Brian Daboll spoke fondly about DeVito after the preseason opener and remarked that “quarterbacks are hard to find in this league.” With that in mind, will the Giants gamble by exposing a second-year quarterback who exceeded expectations in six starts as a rookie to waivers?

Three quarterbacks have been claimed on waivers after cut day in the past three years. Teams are less inclined to claim quarterbacks because they need to come in and learn a new system after missing the entire offseason. So there’s certainly a chance the Giants could slip DeVito through waivers and onto the practice squad. And if he has to be on a practice squad, the Giants will surely be the most attractive option for the hometown hero.

But there would be some risk involved, especially with the Giants’ precarious quarterback situation. DeVito’s status will be among the most intriguing on cut day.

Read more here.

PITTSBURGH — During Russell Wilson’s first preseason series in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform, the 35-year-old quarterback dropped back on third-and-10 to meet almost instant pressure. Buffalo Bills edge rusher Greg Rousseau tore past right tackle Broderick Jones with a power move, shrugged off running back Najee Harris’ chip attempt and spun down Wilson.

The sack set the tone for what was to come.

Throughout the Steelers’ 9-3 loss to the Bills, Wilson and backup QB Justin Fields were hit, hurried and harassed. The two quarterbacks faced 13 pressures and were sacked a combined four times, according to Pro Football Focus. Wilson, especially, felt the brunt of the Bills’ four-man rush, taking three sacks in his first three series.

“I was really upfront with the group about it,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “That can’t be a problem for us.”

But will it be?

Read more here.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — In late June, the quietest time on the NFL calendar, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach started receiving text message after text message while on a family vacation. Questions raced through his mind.

Was there breaking NFL news? Did a member of the Chiefs organization need his attention? Did something happen to one of the players?

Once he looked at what several people sent him, Veach’s reaction was similar to so many around the world: Travis Kelce was on stage with Taylor Swift.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, at London’s Wembley Stadium, Kelce made a surprise appearance as a performer during one of Swift’s mega concerts. More than 90,000 people screamed, cheered and pointed their smartphones at the stage to record Kelce’s every move alongside Swift, the pop superstar artist he’s been dating for more than a year.

“He’s a showman,” Veach said of Kelce. “He has just a natural gift of being able to perform in front of people. Obviously, we get the most benefit when he’s doing it on Sundays.

“It’s funny because when you see those clips with him on tour with Taylor, it looks as if he was a part of that show for months. But it was that one day, and he just looks natural. It’s a gift he has.”

Read more here.

Mike Greenberg will be the new host of “Sunday NFL Countdown” as ESPN sets up its lineup for its first Super Bowl in 2027, a source briefed on the matter told The Athletic on Tuesday.

Greenberg replaces Sam Ponder who was fired last week with one-year and more than a million dollars left on her contract. While she will be paid in full, ESPN made the move to tidy up its books with the fiscal year concluding at the end of September.

Once again, the division winner will come down to the Eagles and Cowboys. That’s how it’s gone for seven of the past eight seasons, and my model puts one of those two on top almost 95 percent of the time. Dak Prescott enters the final year of his contract looking to prove his worth, not just to the Cowboys but to the entire league. Meanwhile, the Eagles are trying to bounce back after they went off the rails in the second half of last season. My model currently likes the Eagles over the Cowboys, but the margin is razor-thin.

Ultimately, this division comes down to how well Eagles QB Jalen Hurts plays. If he’s the MVP candidate of two seasons ago, the Eagles will reclaim the division crown. If not, the Cowboys will be the first repeat NFC East winner since the Eagles won four straight from 2001 to 2004.

I don’t expect much from the Washington Commanders or New York Giants this year, but at least the Commanders have some reason for hope after drafting quarterback Jayden Daniels. The Giants don’t have much hope as they prepare to ride with Daniel Jones one more time. Neither team will push for a playoff spot, and there’s a decent chance the Giants, who have the fifth-lowest projected win total in the NFL, could end up with the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Check out win totals for NFC teams from our NFL Projection Model here.

The Cleveland Browns have discussed a potential trade of second-year quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson with multiple teams, two league sources with knowledge of the discussions told The Athletic.

Thompson-Robinson has been competing with Tyler Huntley for Cleveland’s No. 3 quarterback job behind Deshaun Watson and Jameis Winston. Though a league source said the Browns have been willing to engage in discussions about moving Thompson-Robinson with teams looking to bolster their quarterback rooms, it’s unclear if Cleveland is close to a deal.

The Falcons have spent $45 million in the last two years on additions to their training facility in Flowery Branch, Ga., which sits 45 miles northeast of the city. This year’s upgrades included a new locker room and two-story weight room.

The upgrades include more than twice the floor space for the players and drying stations for shoulder pads, gloves and clothing in each locker, but first-year Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins is most impressed by the three-chair barber shop.

“The barber shop is eyebrow-raising,” Cousins said. “It’s taking up a lot of square footage. Clearly, getting a haircut is a big deal here. Falcons culture, you better be lined up because the amount of square footage we have devoted to haircuts, you better come in clean.”

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — If that’s it for Caleb Williams in the preseason — if 43 total snaps over two games is viewed as more than enough — then it was a good start for the Chicago Bears’ rookie quarterback.

From flashing early in Buffalo against the Bills to responding late in the first against the Cincinnati Bengals with several highlight-feel plays, general manager Ryan Poles liked what he saw from the first pick. He saw a young player enter his comfort zone.

“When the lights turn on in the stadium, it’s just a very different atmosphere than at practice,” Poles said. “So what are you going to get? Is it going to elevate or is it going to kind of crumble to the pressure? And for him, everything almost seemed to slow down a little bit when the games came around.

“I really just kind of watched him in the locker room prepare, watched his routine, and he just seemed more comfortable when the game came along. And I think that’s a really good trait to have because you can see that poise.

“And I thought you saw a really good start at Buffalo. It was a little choppy the other day here at Soldier Field versus the Bengals, and he worked through some of that early adversity until he could get in a rhythm. So I just think when the game time came you could see things slow down and he was in his comfort zone, which is a great sign.”

It’s a great sign for the entire Bears organization, too. Williams was one of the main topics during Poles’ annual training camp interview with the “Hoge & Jahns” podcast. Here are some other highlights from the 25-minute conversation in Poles’ office at Halas Hall.

Pate Tuilevuka could hardly believe what he was seeing. He was only at this tryout as a favor to an old friend, but it didn’t take long to realize he was watching someone special.

A person that big and that strong shouldn’t be that fast. That smooth. The possibilities felt infinite. The heights limitless.

Tuilevuka, the general manager of Major League Rugby’s Seattle Seawolves, thought that with a little training, Laiatu Latu could dominate. He reminded Tuilevuka of New Zealand rugby union legend Jonah Lomu. “Jonah was a huge, massive individual who had incredible speed and power,” Tuilevuka said. “So, as soon as I saw (Latu) … I just knew, ‘Aw shoot, this kid has all of that.'”

It was scheduled to be a three-day tryout, but Tuilevuka had seen enough after only a few drills. He was ready to sign Latu on the spot. But the 20-year-old couldn’t commit.

Latu liked rugby, and he was great at it, leading Jesuit High in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, Calif., to two national championships. His coach, Lou Stanfill, who helped set up the Seawolves tryout, described Latu as “clinically merciless.” If an opponent got between him and a scoring opportunity, Latu ran straight through their chest. If a player tried to score on him, Latu caved their chest in.

“He was a man among boys, especially in his senior year,” Stanfill said. “He was 6-foot-4, 250-260 pounds, could run, could hit, could jump. He could do everything and he was coachable in everything.”

But even though Latu could do it all on a rugby pitch, his heart belonged elsewhere. A neck injury he suffered at the University of Washington just months prior was supposed to keep him off the football field forever. But Latu wasn’t ready to accept that, so he turned down Tuilevuka and the Seawolves — and a potentially fabulous life.

“If Laiatu wanted to go play rugby, he would play overseas, and he would be a big name,” Stanfill said. “Everyone around the world would end up finding out who Laiatu Latu is.

“He would play here in the States for MLR. He’d get on the U.S. National Team, and then someone in France, England, New Zealand (would sign him). … He’d be making good money, living in France and playing great ruby.”

Instead, Latu defiantly rededicated himself to a sport that was supposed to be in his rearview mirror. “I told them that my passion is football,” Latu said of the Seawolves tryout. And three years after being told he’d never play football again, he became the first defensive player selected in the 2024 NFL Draft, his passion having become his livelihood.

Read more from this feature here.

With all of Monday’s updates, the wide receiver spot took a pretty significant hit. Curtis Samuel’s turf toe has him labeled week-to-week, and he’s a prominent member of their top four. Meanwhile, the neck injury to Marquez Valdes-Scantling will keep him out “multiple weeks,” according to head coach Sean McDermott. Valdes-Scantling was their clear fifth receiver and a near roster lock. That leaves the Bills with three healthy receivers — Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman and Mack Hollins — who were ticketed for a role on offense to begin the year.

McDermott admitted that they are more concerned about some of their multi-week injured players not being ready for Week 1 than others but declined to say who. However, looking at the rhetoric McDermott used to describe wide receiver specifically, it would not be a surprise if Samuel was one of the ones he was more optimistic about. In McDermott-speak, there is a decent difference in severity between week-to-week and “out multiple weeks.” For reference, safeties Cole Bishop and Mike Edwards were labeled week-to-week in late July, and they are beginning to ramp up at practice this week.

If that holds, the Bills shouldn’t need to do anything with Samuel’s injury for roster cuts. They might need to place Valdes-Scantling on injured reserve to begin the year to open up a spot for another receiver. Unlike the backup quarterback decision, they’ll need to make that call by next week because the player they would keep instead of Valdes-Scantling would likely need to go through waivers. His injury might secure a roster spot for clear sixth receiver Tyrell Shavers.

The Baltimore Ravens are closing in on locking into a starting five on the offensive line. Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele look like they'll be the Ravens' starting guards for the Week 1 opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Read more here.

Hoge & Jahns sit down exclusively with Bears GM Ryan Poles to discuss the pick and growth of Caleb Williams, Hard Knocks, the o-line, RB and everything in between as they chop it up live in Poles' office.

The San Francisco 49ers are enjoying the maturity of a pair of rookie DBs in Malik Mustapha and Renardo Green. Both young defensive backs were tasked with playing multiple positions in college and that appears to be paying off now for the 49ers.

Read more on them here.

Two series are hardly an adequate enough sample size. But Bryce Huff’s preseason debut against the Patriots was certainly promising. He logged three tackles in 12 plays. He played against the run, rushed against the pass and remained in the game in third-down scenarios.

Huff, 26, is entering the first season of a three-year, $51.1 million contract that warrants a full-time role. Projected starters don’t typically play in preseason games. But Fangio said Huff made a surprise appearance in New England so that he’d gain every-down experience after spending four seasons with the New York Jets as a platoon player on third-down and two-minute situations.

“He needs to learn to do that,” Fangio said. “In the game, he did some stuff he really hadn’t done up to this point yet, which was great to see. Great for his confidence, great for our confidence in him. So, that 12, 15 plays he got in the game were very fruitful for him.”

Huff is replacing Haason Reddick, who, with 11 sacks, was the Eagles defense’s most productive player in 2023. Reddick pressured opposing quarterbacks on 12.7 percent of his pass rush snaps, and he sacked them on 6.2 percent of those snaps, according to TruMedia.

Read more here.

The Bills have won four consecutive AFC East titles, but after an offseason of roster turnover, highlighted by trading wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans, there has been some doubt about Buffalo’s chances to make it a five-peat.

Well, not according to my model.

Sure, it’s closer than in years past, but the Bills are still the team to beat in the East. Josh Allen is the best non-Mahomes quarterback in the NFL, and the other two division contenders still have questions.

Miami just signed Tua Tagovailoa to a mega-extension, but the Dolphins offense hasn’t been able to get it done against quality competition. The New York Jets are looking to get a full season out of a healthy Aaron Rodgers, but he’s on the wrong side of 40 and coming off an Achilles tear, so what’s a realistic expectation? Yes, the defense should be elite, but I still have concerns about the offense. And for what it’s worth, the Indianapolis Colts have won as many AFC East titles as the Jets since 1999 despite playing in the AFC South since 2002. The analysis of this division simply comes down to whether you believe the Jets can squeeze more out of Rodgers or if the Dolphins can get more out of Tagovailoa to knock off the Bills. My model would rather bet on Allen elevating the Buffalo offense as they defend the throne.

Check our NFL Projection Model's win totals for every AFC team here.