Six days out from the August 30 roster deadline, the second week of preseason did what the second week of preseason usually does. It answered one or two things loudly and left everything else exactly where it was.
Cleveland answered theirs. Deshaun Watson is the Browns’ starter for Week 1, and head coach Todd Monken went out of his way to close the door behind the decision, saying the job is not a week-by-week arrangement. That last part matters more than the name. Naming a starter is easy in August. Committing to him in public, after a summer in which Shedeur Sanders gave the fanbase something to shout about, is a different thing entirely, and it tells you Cleveland would rather absorb the noise now than relitigate the position every Monday.
Pittsburgh was less tidy. Mike McCarthy described the club’s contract talks with cornerback Joey Porter Jr. as being at an impasse, which is an unusually blunt word for a head coach to reach for this close to a season. McCarthy was careful to say he wants to work with Porter rather than around him. Still, an impasse acknowledged out loud in late August rarely resolves quietly, and the Steelers have a secondary that cannot really afford the distraction.
There was better news in the same building. Jalen Ramsey came off the physically unable to perform list, one of a run of transactions across the league that also saw New Orleans add a kicker.
The injuries that will shape depth charts
Las Vegas will be holding its breath. Rookie running back Ashton Jeanty left practice with what is believed to be a sprained ankle, and while nobody has put a timeline on it, a back the Raiders have built plans around missing any part of September would hurt.
The Chargers already have their answer, and it is not one they wanted. Veteran center Tyler Biadasz has been placed on season-ending injured reserve with a knee injury. Losing your starting center before the opener is the kind of problem that quietly follows an offense into December.
Tennessee’s issue is less dramatic and possibly more worrying. Cam Ward went 8 of 12 for 69 yards against Seattle, numbers that look fine on a stat sheet and read very differently if you watched it. The phrase coming out of the Titans camp was missed opportunities, and it is now two weeks running.
What to watch this week
Atlanta’s quarterback competition is still live and looks likely to intensify. Seattle appears to have found a running back nobody had circled in July. Dallas has a quarterback trending in the right direction. And every front office in the league is doing the least enjoyable part of the job, working through the cuts that take 90-man rosters down to 53 by Saturday.
Denver, for what it is worth, has the league’s top-ranked player for the second straight year. The Top 100 is voted on by players, which makes it the one preseason list worth arguing about.
Reporting from NFL.com.