I've always been told that Father Time gets the best of everyone, but I'm starting to think I was misled, because Father Time is losing his fight with Tom Brady, and you know what, he's not just losing, he's getting his face smashed in.
Today is Brady's birthday, which makes him 44, which seems impossible to believe because I'm pretty sure he hasn't aged in at least six years. Maybe it's the avocado ice cream or maybe it's the beluga lentil tacos that he eats every night for dinner, but whatever the reason is, Tom Brady doesn't age. The man looks like he's 22. That might sound like an exaggeration, but I don't think I'm exaggerating and I HAVE PROOF. Jets rookie Zach Wilson also has a birthday today and he's turning 22. If you click here, you can see a picture of what they look like next to each other and I'm not sure which one is the 22-year-old.
To help Brady celebrate his birthday, Bruce Arians gave him a present today that I'm guessing Brady is going to hate: A day off from practice. Brady wants to be practicing at all times, so he's probably going to be miserable watching his team practice without him today.
Oh, and I don't want it to look like I'm playing favorites, so also, happy birthday to Todd Gurley, Tyrod Taylor, Derwin James and Younghoe Koo. Alright, that's enough birthday talk, let's get to the rundown.
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1. Today's show: Dissecting the Carson Wentz situation
I didn't go to medical school, but I kind of wish I did, because then I would have felt a lot smarter talking about Carson Wentz's foot injury during Tuesday's episode of the Pick Six Podcast. The show was hosted by Will Brinson, who's also not a doctor, and with our non-medical degrees, we did our best to dissect Wentz's foot injury.
The craziest thing about this injury is the recovery timeline. The Colts are saying that Wentz could be out anywhere from five to 12 weeks, which means there's an outside shot he could be back for the opener, but there's also a chance that he could miss the first seven games of the season.
According to Fox Sports, the Colts will re-evaluate the injury in two weeks to get an idea of how quickly Wentz's foot is recovering from surgery. With that in mind, here's what Brinson and I decided we would do if we were running the Colts.
- If Wentz can play by Week 2: Let Jacob Eason start and pray that he can win you a game. If Wentz is only going to miss one or two games, it doesn't make much sense to give up any draft capital for a quarterback who's only going to play one or two weeks.
- If Wentz won't be back until October: Pull off a trade for a veteran. I think the Colts best bet would be to go after Mitchell Trubisky. However, Brinson didn't agree with that. He said the Colts should go after Marcus Mariota and he actually thinks Indy would be BETTER OFF with Mariota over Wentz.
- Don't trade for Nick Foles: This is one thing we agreed on. Adding Foles would likely crush any confidence Wentz has left and the last thing Frank Reich wants to do is create an awkward quarterback situation, which is what will happen if the Colts add Foles.
During the podcast, we also talked about Nick Chubb's contract extension and Mike Zimmer's total disdain for Kirk Cousins.
To listen to today's episode -- and to follow the podcast -- be sure to click here.
2. Colts dealing with another major injury
As if things haven't been bad enough for Colts this week, they got more bad news on Tuesday when Quenton Nelson showed up to practice with a boot on his right foot. According to ESPN.com, Nelson has the EXACT same injury as Carson Wentz and like his quarterback, the offensive lineman is going to miss five to 12 weeks.
Nelson is scheduled to undergo surgery later today. Based on his recovery timeline, Nelson could be back in time for Week 1, but he if he's out the full 12 weeks, that means he would miss up to seven games. If he misses any amount of time at all, that would be a huge blow for Indy.
Nelson is a a three-time All-Pro guard who has played in every game the Colts have had since he was drafted in 2018.
The injury to Nelson continues a disastrous training camp for the Colts. They're not even a week into camp and here's what they've had to deal with so far.
Carson Wentz (Starting QB): Foot surgery, out 5-12 weeks
Quenton Nelson (Starting left guard): Foot surgery, out 5-12 weeks
Darius Leonard (Starting linebacker): Currently out with ankle injury
Ryan Kelly (Starting center): Currently out with elbow injury
Frank Reich (Head coach): Missed multiple practices with COVID
In other Colts news, Foles sounds interested in reuniting with Reich.
"Listen, Frank Reich is one of the favorite -- if not my favorite -- coaches of all time," Foles said. "He understands me as a player, he understands me as a person. I haven't had any talks with them (Colts about a trade). I'm a Chicago Bear right now, but he knows me."
So why does Foles like Reich so much?
"You all watched the 2017 season and the playoffs where he changed the offense and built it around me," Foles said. "He understood my mentality as a player and he was able to build it around me and put me in a successful position."
I think this is Foles' way telling us he wants to play for the Colts without saying he wants to play for the Colts. Unfortunately for Foles, it doesn't look like the Colts will be making a trade anytime soon. According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, the Colts aren't planning to make a deal for a veteran right now, although those plans could change if Wentz has any complications with his foot following Monday's surgery.
Of course, it's possible the Colts might start looking to make a few deals now that they have so many holes thanks to their latest series of injuries.
3. Matthew Stafford injures surgically repaired thumb at practice
I don't want to say that I'm jinxing teams, but I'm starting to feel like I'm jinxing teams. The Rams and the Colts were going to be my two dark horse teams for the Super Bowl this year, but I might have to reconsider both of them, because not only is Carson Wentz dealing with his foot injury, but Matthew Stafford is also dealing with an injury.
The Rams quarterback slammed his right thumb against a teammate's helmet on Monday, and right now, it's not clear what his status is. Rams coach Sean McVay was vague when asked about details of the injury after practice.
"We'll see," McVay said, via the Los Angeles Times. "He's so tough as it is. Look at what he played through all last year to get the thumb cleaned up. He's a tough guy. We'll see what they say and take it one day at a time."
One concern for the Rams is that Stafford just had surgery on that same right thumb. The QB played most of last season with a partially torn ligament in the thumb and he didn't have it repaired until March when he underwent surgery. As recently as April, he was still wearing a cast on the thumb, which you can see by clicking here.
There's a chance this injury could be nothing -- Stafford might only miss a day or two to give his thumb some rest -- but if it ends up being a serious injury, it would be a big blow to any hopes the Rams had of winning the NFC West this year
4. 49ers seem committed to Jimmy Garoppolo as their Week 1 starter
Kyle Shanahan has been insisting all summer that Jimmy Garoppolo would be the 49ers quarterback to start the season and I'm starting to think he's not bluffing.
Although Trey Lance is having a great training camp so far, Garoppolo is still getting all the first-team reps and Shanahan said it's likely going to stay that way. The 49ers coach was asked if Lance might soon be competing for the starting job and he shot that down pretty quickly.
"No. I wouldn't say that," Shanahan said.
The 49ers coach then added that he'd be surprised if Lance ended up being his Week 1 starter.
"Jimmy has played too good," Shanahan said. "He is too good of a player and Trey's trying to learn everything right now and soak it all in. So that's why I'd be very surprised if he was able to do that."
Shanahan might have been keeping everyone in the dark about whom the 49ers were going to draft with their first-round pick this year, but I don't think he's bluffing here. The bottom line here is that if Lance isn't getting first-team reps at training camp, he's definitely not going to start in Week 1. At this point, the only way Shanahan might change his mind is if Lance wows everyone during San Francisco's three preseason games.
5. Building a 53-man roster of players who aren't in the Hall of Fame
We're just four days away from this year's Hall of Fame induction and as we get closer, we'll be talking plenty about the guys who are being inducted, but for now, we're going to talk about 53 players who AREN'T in the Hall of Fame.
Our Bryan DeArdo decided to build a 53-man roster of retired players who aren't in the Hall of Fame and he actually was able to build a pretty solid team.
Let's take a look at the offense of our non-Hall of Famers:
QB: Michael Vick
RB: Bo Jackson
FB: Mike Alstott
WR: Reggie Wayne
WR: Torry Holt
SWR: Cliff Branch
TE: Mark Bavaro
LT: Tony Boselli
LG: Logan Mankins
C: Jeff Saturday
RG: Walt Sweeney
RT: Ralph Neely
This team also features a starting defense and a full roster of specialists and if you want to see who made the list at those positions, you'll have to click here so you can check out the entire story.
6. Rapid-fire roundup
It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- LeSean McCoy might retire. The veteran running back is thinking about playing this year, but if he can't find a team that fits him, then he's going to call it quits. "If the phone rings and it's a good team I like and it's a great fit I might go, and if not I'll go into the sunset," McCoy told ABC27.com.
- Deshaun Watson sits out Texans practice. The Texans held their first padded practice of training camp on Tuesday and the QB didn't take part. Apparently, Watson is dealing with a minor foot injury and the team held him out as a precaution. With the Texans planning to trade him, it wouldn't do them much good if he made a minor injury worse by practicing on it.
- Panthers safety gets cut after sending teammate to hospital. Someone forgot to tell J.T. Ibe that you're not supposed to level your teammates at training camp. During practice on Tuesday, the safety put a vicious hit on wide receiver Keith Kirkwood, who left practice in an ambulance. The Panthers clearly were not thrilled with the situation because they ended up releasing Ibe.
- Julio Jones not at Titans practice on Tuesday. The Titans receiver had to leave practice early on Monday after suffering what appeared to be a minor injury. Although coach Mike Vrabel said he wasn't too concerned about a possible injury, there might be at least a little concern now after Jones missed Tuesday's session. It's still unclear how serious his injury may or may not be.
- Vikings sign two quarterbacks. With the Vikings down to just one QB this week thanks a COVID situation, the team has added two more to the roster. The Vikings signed Case Cookus and Danny Etling.
- Bills set Week 1 deadline for Josh Allen extension. At some point in the near future, Josh Allen is going to get a monstrous contract extension, but he might have to wait until next year. Bills GM Brandon Beane revealed on Monday that if the two sides can't hammer out a deal before the start of the season that they're going to table all contract talks until 2022.
- Raiders GM has COVID. Mike Mayock won't be attending any Raiders practices for the next few days after he tested positive for COVID, "Very grateful that I am vaccinated as I could very easily be in a hospital rather than working comfortably from home," Mayock said in a statement, via NFL.com.
- Dolphins coach sounds optimistic about keeping Xavien Howard. Although Howard has requested to be traded, there's still a chance that he could remain in Miami. Dolphins coach Brian Flores said that negotiations with the Dolphins' star corner are moving in the right direction, "As far as the contract we'll continue to have dialogue and take it one step at a time. We are moving in the right direction," Flores said this week.
- Kenny Golladay leaves practice with apparent hamstring injury. The Giants will be holding their breath over the next 24 hours hoping that Golladay isn't dealing with a serious injury. The receiver appeared to pull his hamstring at practice and you can see photo of the instant it happened by clicking here. It was a rough day for the Giants. Not only did Golladay leave practice, but there was also a full-team brawl that ended with Daniel Jones somehow at the bottom of a pile.
- "Hard Knocks" preview. The first full trailer for this year's version of "Hard Knocks" has been released and you can check it out by clicking here. The series will be featuring the Dallas Cowboys, who are making their third appearance in the show's history.
