NFL preseason’s biggest overreactions and under-reactions so far

The first week of the preseason has officially come and gone and that means that we are finally authorized to have legitimate takes and opinions on everything happening around the NFL in 2024.

Who impressed? Who shocked? Who awed? Who was not good in any way, shape or form?

The Skinny Post was invented to answer questions such as these, and Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa are here to navigate you through the latest round of them.

Biggest overreactions from Week 1 of the preseason

Michael:

Scanning over everything that happened this weekend, it’s hard not to look at the complete dud put up by the Chargers in their first game action under Jim Harbaugh. Yes, I understand it’s a preseason game that means absolutely nothing, but the hype train that developed behind the hire and continued through the entirety of the summer surely was going to lead to an exciting first game inside SoFi Stadium, no?

Well, the unfortunate truth is that Saturday’s exhibition game was arguably the most boring and uneventful preseason game of at least the past five or six seasons. When it was all said and done, it took until the final five minutes of the second quarter for the Bolts to record a first down despite playing with the starting offensive line or the first few drives. Backup quarterback Easton Stick had the reigns of the offense for the entire first half and the unit slogged through six three-and-outs, including a bad decision which led to an interception and near-injury to tight end Hayden Hurst, before Stick found a lane for a 12-yard jaunt.

The Chargers ended the game with 198 yards of total offense with most of that coming in the second half behind the arms of Max Duggan and Luis Perez. Stick ended the day 5-of-12 for 31 yards and the aforementioned pick to earn a passer rating of 14.6.

Harbaugh and Co. have made it known they want to run the ball. Outside of Jaret Patterson’s 38 yards on seven carries, the other running backs had 8 yards on eight carries.

Once again, this game means nothing. It’s definitely an overreaction because the Lions also put up three points in their game against the Giants and we know very well that Detroit is still one of the best teams in the NFL. In this situation, I think the whiplash from the excitement leading up to this wet sock of a game is what makes it feel so jarring.

RJ:

Let me say that I had no idea that Michael was going to launch into a full on diatribe about the Chargers. Football really is back, baby.

I’m going to keep things away from my team and the dumpster fire that they feel like (shout out to America’s Team) every time somebody steps behind a microphone or in front of a camera. I continue to wonder why one is “behind” and one is “in front” when they are both being broadcasted/displayed to the same place, but that is a conversation for a different today.

On this day I am sticking close by Michael in terms of geography and going with the apparent love for Sam Darnold’s debut with the Minnesota Vikings. By no means am I here to say that it is impossible for Darnold to have success with the Vikings, but we do this every other year at this point in his post-Jets tenure.

Remember when the Carolina Panthers (Matt Rhule’s!) started off 3-0 under him? This really happened and people freaked out and believed that USC Darnold had finally entered the NFL.

Every now and then we run into players who people just can’t quit and I suppose Darnold is that for some. I’m simply not ready to buy in yet based on literally everything we know as a society.

(By the way, it was the Dallas Cowboys who put an end to those undefeated Panthers.)

Biggest underreaction from Week 1 of the preseason

RJ:

Given that we have all been football-starved for several months, I honestly don’t know if we are underreacting to anything. We are freaking out in every single way, shape and form.

If forced to choose, I think I am going to go with the fact that the new kickoff seemingly began without any real hiccups? Think about how difficult it is to implement any new thing in any environment. Consider your own environment. If the office changes messaging clients or the type of paper in the printer, there is an outrage. The NFL got thousands of details to go off without any real hitches of any kind and that is kind of ridiculously amazing? And things were more fun!

If I had to add to my own point, we are talking about this all working in a preseason week which, all due respect here, featured a lot of players who will not make NFL rosters when this is all said and done.

Well done, special teams coordinators!

Michael:

I’m super stoked that everything went smoothly with the new kickoff structure because I’m a big fan and I’d rather not have some major discourse start on the subject of changing it back well before the regular season even gets here.

Something that I don’t think is being talked about enough is how the Dolphins managed to draft one of the fastest running backs in the 2024 class while already employing two of the fastest running backs in the NFL already.

Rookie Jaylen Wright out of Tennessee wasted little time in showing that his skillset is ready-made for the Dolphins and their 4×100 relay team of an offense. He posted 55 rushing yards and a touchdown on 10 carries while also authoring one of the best plays of the weekend on a broken screen pass.

Check this out:

It’s utterly insane they got another guy who is so fast and shifty that he can bobble a pass almost 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage and still find a way to gain almost 15 yards. It’s almost objectively unfair and I may need Goodell to step in.

I jest, but only a little bit.

Who were your top 3 favorite Olympians/Olympic teams to watch in Paris?

Michael:

The Olympics were so much fun this time around (as if they’re ever boring?) and I’m incredibly sad that they’ve come to an end. I truly don’t know what I will do now that I don’t have them to turn on when I’m up before the sun tending to my nine-month old.

As far as which individuals and/or teams I’ll miss rooting for, I think my first pick has to go with the USA Women’s Volleyball squad. My twin sister played volleyball up through high school so I came to love the sport early and the inaugural season of the Pro Volleyball Federation earlier this year only further solidified my love of the game. The U.S. women ended up falling in the gold medal match (shoutout Italy, they were incredible) but they were a blast to watch as they fought tooth-and-nail through some tough teams.

Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred really earned every ounce of praise when she beat USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson in the women’s 100-meter dash. I mean, how can you not be happy for her when she won Saint Lucia’s first EVER Olympic medal in ANY EVENT EVER! If you paid any attention to Alfred leading up to the final run, her game face never faltered. She was stone cold through it all and for it to all pay off in the end was seriously so, so cool.

Lastly, Ilona Maher and the U.S. Women’s Rugby team was a blast to follow from start-to-finish. They were active on social media and it really opened the team up to the public in a way that you couldn’t help but root for them even more. For those who missed it, the women scored as time expired to beat the Australia women’s team to earn a bronze medal, the first ever medal for the U.S. women in rugby.

Seriously, go watch the replay of the final seconds because the U.S. looked dead to rights before what only could be described as a miracle happened.

RJ:

The Olympics provided such a great escape over the course of the last few weeks and not to get too off track, but I am sort of amazed at how Peacock navigated everything. It was so cool to be able to fire up this event or that one and re-watch things at my own convenience. Not every event works like that, but it was awesome.

I’m a San Antonio Spurs fan, so it has been a rough decade(ish) in terms of legitimate basketball to root for. Like most people around the world I finally got to experience what it was like to root for a team with Steph Curry on it, and my word it was incredible. The final minutes of the gold medal game against France (obligatory shout out to Future GOAT Victor Wembanyama) were thrilling theater.

Elsewhere I am a huge golf fan and have even moonlighted a bit at our golf vertical here at SB Nation in Playing Through. I correctly predicted that Scottie Scheffler would take home gold himself, and while I did not do any picks for the women’s side of things, I would have 100% taken New Zealand’s Lydia Ko to medal and she wound up taking gold herself. She now has a bronze, silver and gold medal in the last three games (in that order for the completionists out there) and has put together a stellar LPGA career at just 27 years old.

To round things out, I feel like we have to include Simone Biles because she crosses over into our NFL world. There is something so special about seeing the greatest of all time at the peak of their powers, which is what just happened.