Unexpected Thrills in Yesterday's Hall of Fame Preseason Game

But last night had to have been one of the, and I thought the game was going to be terrible. But as far as Hall of Fame games go and preseason football had to be one of the more entertaining games I least expected to see in a very, very long time there. And not because, you know, Kenneth Pickett was playing in it, but because I was going to be real interested to see what we were going to get from Haynes King, who a lot of people thought should have came out of Georgia Tech earlier than he did. Undrafted, you know, free agent rookie, signed with Carolina. And of course, Carson Beck from the U and Georgia, both guys feel like they played till they were 40 in college. But can I tell you something, they were both pretty good against the second and third teamers. You know, granted it wasn't the starters, but so what, you still got to be able to produce no matter who you're playing with. And I got to tell you, I was pretty impressed with both guys last night. Yeah. I tell you, you know, outside of having to deal with Chris Collinsworth, who it only took me one game to remind me how bad he, oh, is he just brutal. I mean, Carson Beck's first drive, Joe, he's talking about how he's like a seven time all pro like even, even Mike Tirico, who's pretty good. I like Mike. Even he was like, Chris, take it easy. It's the first freaking drive. Let him get out of the first quarter before you send him to the hall of fame here. I know it's the hall of fame, the game, oh, Collinsworth is such, he's just unlistable Joe. He's just unlistable. But that said, you know, the other thing we learned with is, you know, these mediocre quarterbacks like the Kenny pickets of the world. One thing I've noticed these preseason games, if they stink in the regular season, if they actually play, they generally also stink in the preseason. If the rookies who come in that actually tend to play a little bit better versus the Kenny pickets of the world. And that's how a lot of people, you know, bet on basically who the back of the quarterback are. Right. But I know I also love to look for these scrambling quarterbacks and really came to perfection. I like Carolina. Listen, got fortunate. Right. But the reason they won is because, you know, Haynes King is running the ball all over the place on that last drive, including the touchdown drive. Looks like he's got a little moxie, you know, he's not a bad guy to keep on your roster. So yeah, it was a good entertainment, 3330, but this is also Joe, the fifth time that the hall of fame game has gone over. I know the perception is with these preseason games, you know, 10, three all over the place, but that's really not the case. There's a lot of these preseason games action because there's fewer games. So you get starters playing a little bit more each game. So I liked the over I hit with Carolina, but that said, who cares what I thought, but I was impressed with Haynes King and Carson Beck, both of them. Again, I wasn't, I thought for sure it was going to be terrible, but you're right. It's a fifth straight now hall of fame over hall of fame game over. So, uh, and usually it's supposed to be, I mean, call me crazy, but it's supposed to be the defense is supposed to be ahead of the offenses. If any of those guys in the secondary and either Arizona or Carolina are vying for either a starting role or a backup role, uh, they might want to find, uh, some other Avenue to make a living because boy, oh boy, those secondaries got absolutely torched. But having said that, I mean, let's look at who the backup quarterbacks are going to be for both those teams this year, Gardner Minshew and Kenny Pickett did, I, you know, both of those guys that I watched last night are more than capable of taking the backup role from the Kenny Pickett's and Gardner Minshew's of the world, Scott, am I right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, and people don't realize, or maybe they do, I don't know, but you know, if you have, if you're a backup like Kenny Pickett or, or Gardner Minshew, you make more money every year you're in the league, you make more and more, your, your minimum is higher and higher and higher, which means you got to really outperform the Carson Beck's or the Haynes Kings of the world. Otherwise teams will just say, well, why should we pay you, you know, $750,000 when we could pay this guy 300,000. So yeah, those guys, you know, one game, great, but they may have earned themselves at least a decent shot anyway of sticking on these clubs. Yeah. Both look good. And you know what? If it's one thing that we know that this league needs, it's quarterbacks of all shapes and sizes and all different types. Now, Carson Beck, it, you know, experience. Yes. If guys played a lot of football in his time, he's not going to run all over you, but he did. And a couple of times progressed through his read last night and ran the ball three or four yards for a first down. And guess what? You can make a living in the NFL. If you can do that all year, just, I don't want either of those guys anywhere near the jets. Cause I only need them to win one or two games this year. That's all I'm looking for out of them. But you know, Chris Wink is another guy. It feels like you played a hundred years in college football, right? These guys, they come in, they're not intimidated. It's not too big for them. And they come in and they do what they've been doing for the last 17 years in college football is they go out there and they play the game.