2026 NFL training camp news, buzz, fantasy football updates

NFL training camps are underway ahead of the 2026 season, and Jeremy Fowler, Dan Graziano and Ben Solak have been on the road for their respective annual camp tours. We had updates from their first 12 stops last week, and now we’re sharing nuggets and notes from visits to the 49ers, Bengals, Bills, Browns, Cowboys, Eagles, Jets, Raiders, Ravens, Seahawks and Steelers over the past seven days.

At each camp stop, Jeremy, Dan and Ben talked to players, coaches, executives and scouts to get the latest buzz. We compiled everything they saw and heard, including some nuggets that might be important for fantasy football managers.

How are quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley looking in the Eagles’ new offensive system? Are the 49ers veterans worried about all the preseason injuries? Is the plan still for the Raiders to start Kirk Cousins over Fernando Mendoza? And could the Steelers have one of the best defenses in the league? Here’s what we learned for each team on our most recent visits.

Jump to a team’s camp notes:
BAL | BUF | CIN | CLE | DAL | LV
NYJ | PHI | PIT | SEA | SF

Dates visited: Aug. 7
Location: Renton, Washington

Best thing I saw/heard: This new offense is brimming with camp optimism. Offensive coordinator Brian Fleury has impressed one of the league’s best defenses by “dialing it up,” per safety Julian Love.

“We think they have our script, pretty much,” joked Love, noting the timely playcalling mixed with pre-snap adjustments from savvy veterans such as wide receiver Cooper Kupp and quarterback Sam Darnold. “They know what we’re in. They were on our ass the first few days [of camp].”

The Seahawks will have two tight ends on the field “very, very often,” according to tight end AJ Barner. That position will help facilitate the motions and shifts, a staple of the San Francisco offense from which Fleury came.

Wide receiver Rashid Shaheed should also be a major factor in 2026. Love said his “blinding speed” has been a problem for the defense all camp, and though Shaheed primarily lines up on the outside, he’s also moving around. He was spotted in the backfield during one portion of a Seahawks practice last week. Wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s heavy workload should continue after he accounted for 36% of the targets last season, but Shaheed having a full offseason in Seattle makes him a more viable option in the intermediate parts of the field — not just deep.

One thing Fleury did early in the offseason that coach Mike Macdonald liked: He “doubled down” on the fundamentals and how Seattle played stylistically before implementing the full scheme.

“That really resonated with me,” Macdonald said. The end result is an offense with the “same bones” as last season under Klint Kubiak but has “a little more variation in the running game,” per Barner.

One key fantasy nugget: The running back rotation will feature “two, possibly three guys in a game plan,” Macdonald told me, starting with the preseason. That muddles the fantasy picture a bit. But Jadarian Price will be hard to keep off the field. Macdonald says Price “doesn’t feel like a rookie” based on his attention to detail and coachability.

“He’s an impressive guy,” Macdonald said. “It will be fun to see him in a game.”

Love says Price’s burst is “like a prime Dalvin Cook.” And Barner added that Price has a knack for following the “track” that blockers create.

Seattle likes to spread the wealth at tailback (Kenneth Walker III averaged 13 carries per game last season). George Holani and Emanuel Wilson are steady veterans who should be factors early, and Macdonald says he thinks Zach Charbonnet (torn ACL) is getting closer based on how he looks in workouts. But Price’s profile should only grow as we approach September.

Best of the rest:

• Championship messaging permeates the Seahawks building. Barner said a team room that once featured a picture of the Lombardi Trophy has been replaced with the mantra “12 is 1.” Macdonald said the Seahawks staff wasn’t trying to send a message with that change and just thought it “would look cool.” But he has stressed that winning a Super Bowl is something to cherish and hard to replicate — but what his players can replicate is the team’s “way of life” and “going to work with your boys” every day.

• The Seahawks say safety/big nickel Nick Emmanwori has a chance to return in Week 1 from offseason ankle surgery, but that’s not a certainty at this point. Defensive back D’Anthony Bell is expected to step into a bigger role, though Macdonald says “everything is on the table.” That means a cornerback, safety or linebacker could fill that spot. Love says Emmanwori is a “unicorn” — Seattle can’t perfectly replace him. Second-round safety Bud Clark could fill in at one of the safety spots in Seattle’s three-safety package, and the team is hoping to get third-round corner Julian Neal back from a leg injury in short order.

• Barner is an ascending tight end who should come into his own in Year 3. He’s finally healthy after multiple offseason surgeries. And Fleury’s offense should accelerate his progress. Barner can do a little bit of everything. But he made a point to emphasize another tight end when asked about up-and-comers on the roster: Elijah Arroyo. “Tremendously talented player,” Barner said. “Year 2, you get more comfortable.” Those two will be working off of each other a lot in 2026 as a strength of the offense.

• The Seahawks’ receiver dynamic is interesting, as the coaches are excited about Tory Horton now that he’s healthy after cracking his tibia last season. Kupp will remain a factor with his football IQ and rapport with Darnold, and team officials say they feel as if he’s moving well at age 33. Expect Seattle to mix and match to find enough snaps for both Kupp and Horton. Really, Smith-Njigba is the only player who won’t come off the field much.

• General manager John Schneider said he knew the Seahawks couldn’t bring back everyone from the Super Bowl roster, losing several key players to free agency. And with limited draft capital in April — the team entered the draft with four picks but left with eight — Schneider acknowledges Seattle had to emphasize its needs more than it probably wanted. The team drafted players it loves at positions it had to backfill, such as running back and defensive back. The Seahawks also had pass rush high on the list, though they ultimately didn’t fill that spot. Schneider says the 2027 draft frees up his staff to prioritize good players regardless of position, as Seattle is projected to have 12 picks next April. He will also keep close tabs on his offensive line. Even though Seattle has a good core there, it wants to maintain strength at that position. Schneider says he feels Seattle didn’t do enough of that after the first Super Bowl win a decade ago: “We’re a little more cognizant this time with that.”

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Dates visited: Aug. 7
Location: Rochester, New York

Best thing I saw/heard: I started scratching out this note about halfway through practice when I realized just how many players were taking first-team snaps with the Bills’ defense, this isn’t complete. But aside from the obvious starters, here’s my noncomprehensive list of players who took at least one “starting” snap last Friday for Jim Leonhard’s defense: Javon Solomon, DeWayne Carter, Kaleb Elarms-Orr (a lot of excitement for the fourth-round rookie linebacker), Kani Walker, Sam Franklin Jr., Phidarian Mathis, Keonta Jenkins, Jordan Hancock, Geno Stone and Zane Durant.

Rest days and injuries played a part in this, but the Bills are throwing everyone at the wall right now defensively and seeing what sticks. It makes sense. This defense was very much built in the image of Sean McDermott, who ran Buffalo’s D since 2017. That means even second-contract players such as Christian Benford and Greg Rousseau have known only McDermott’s unit, and that was a fairly static defense. It relied on four-down fronts and nickel personnel almost exclusively, and it played a heavy amount of zone coverages.

Leonhard’s scheme will be different — almost radically so. A college defensive coach for a long time before he joined Vance Joseph in Denver, Leonhard emphasizes odd fronts and simulated pressure packages to create changing pictures in the running game. He wants to force the ball out fast by baiting the quarterback into bad checkdowns and unnecessary hot throws when blitzes aren’t actually coming. McDermott believed in sound coverage, clear communication and fine-tuned chemistry. Leonhard believes in simple calls, mental speed and adjustments. He lives more on the forefoot than McDermott did.

With changing fronts come new roles. Ed Oliver, perhaps the biggest defensive star on the Bills’ roster, will get to line up in alignments he never enjoyed in the McDermott defense. Rousseau is in a two-point stance now. Some roles remain totally open: Leonhard’s defenses at Wisconsin tended to play do-it-all linebackers with on/off ball versatility (Andrew Van Ginkel, Zack Baun and Nick Herbig), and such a player simply isn’t on the Bills’ roster at this time.

Buffalo will experiment with a few players, of course. But it takes more than an offseason to rip a defensive depth chart down to the studs and rebuild it for an entirely new defensive coordinator. And that’s especially true when spending is tight in that offseason.

Expect to see the Bills experiment with different starters throughout the season. Day 3 rookies will surely get playing time (looking at you, Elarms-Orr) and jobs in the secondary will shift throughout the season. I’d go so far as to say the Bills’ defense we see during the 2026 regular season probably won’t be the full picture of what Leonhard wants to be in the long term. His challenge will be finding enough answers by playoff football to help power the Bills over that looming hump they’ve never seemed able to get over.

One key fantasy nugget: Receiver DJ Moore was never used more downfield than he was in 2020, his first year under then-coordinator Joe Brady with the Panthers. He averaged 13.2 air yards per target, well above the 9.7 he averaged in three seasons with the Bears. Now he rejoins Brady in Buffalo, where he will bring a missing element to the offense: downfield speed.

It was a review day in Pittsford when I attended practice, and the Bills weren’t particularly keen on getting veteran players banged-up; Moore barely participated in 11-on-11s and wasn’t targeted downfield during drills. But when I asked around about the plan for Moore’s usage in this offense, I heard a lot about deep- and intermediate-breaking routes. Internally, the Bills say that they should be a lot more productive off play-action given how dominant their running game has been in the past few seasons, and Moore is the first guy up for those one-on-one downfield opportunities.

Best of the rest:

• One defensive player was highlighted for me by multiple people in the building: Dee Alford, the nickel corner signed to replace Taron Johnson. Alford worked his way up through the CFL and onto the Falcons roster in 2022, where he won the slot job before Billy Bowman Jr. was drafted to replace him in 2025. The Bills didn’t make many defensive additions in the transition from McDermott to Leohnard on defense, but Alford’s three-year deal was a priority for a defense that needs sticky man coverage ability in the slot.

• There’s still internal belief in wideout Keon Coleman, who is coming into this season with much lower expectations than he did last year. He’s in a battle with Joshua Palmer for the WR3 snaps behind Moore and Khalil Shakir, but he won’t fade out of the rotation entirely even if Palmer is the “starter” in three-receiver sets. To Coleman’s benefit, nobody on the bottom of the receiver depth chart is pushing for snaps ahead of him.

• With David Edwards departed for New Orleans, left guard is still an open competition between incumbent Alec Anderson and free agent Austin Corbett. In the building, my sense is that Anderson has the lead — but not emphatically enough to write anything in stone before Week 1.

• Keep an eye out for updates on running back Ty Johnson, whom the Bills love as a third-down pass catcher — he pulled up because of an injury during the Bills’ stadium practice Saturday. My sense was already that the Bills want to involve James Cook III more in the passing game this season, and if Johnson is at all limited going forward, that drumbeat will only get louder.

• The Bills were third in called run rate last season and eighth in the same stat the year before. When you win a lot of regular-season games, it makes sense. But I’d wager the Bills are a little more pass-heavy now that Brady is the head coach — especially as they endeavor to protect a defense in transition by building bigger leads earlier.

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Dates visited: Aug. 6
Location: Henderson, Nevada

Best thing I saw/heard: Sadly, I was one day too early for the Kirk Cousins-Maxx Crosby practice scuffle. When I was there, everyone was getting along great. The quarterback situation is playing out exactly the way the Raiders have told everyone it would. Cousins is obviously the starter while No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza gets second-team reps and picks the brain of Cousins and his coaches in between.

“Good quarterback room,” Cousins told me after practice. “We’ve enjoyed just working together as a group. We have good dialogue every day. I think the organization is positioned well having drafted Fernando. I’m going to try to hold him off as long as I can, and we’ll see how it goes up ahead.”

The Raiders want to keep Mendoza on the sideline until he’s ready … but also until they are ready for him. They weren’t very good on the offensive line last season, for example, and they’d like to see improvement in that area before throwing a rookie QB behind it. That doesn’t mean they’re throwing Cousins out there to take a beating but rather that the 37-year-old veteran is more capable of solving the kinds of problems a rookie might not yet be ready to solve.

So when will Mendoza play? It’s impossible to say, and the Raiders don’t have a set date in mind. They say they believe they’ll know it when they see it. They’ve liked what Mendoza has shown in practice, but he has also made his share of rookie mistakes and needs to clean up some areas of his game. Meanwhile, Cousins knows the system, having worked with new Raiders coach Klint Kubiak in Minnesota.

“My history with Klint was the biggest reason why coming here made sense,” Cousins said. “Comfort level with Klint and the system. I think he’s doing a great job as a first-year head coach instilling his culture and his system. I think guys are rallying behind it. Time will tell. We’ve got to go turn it into wins and have a great season.”

The Raiders have a lot to sort out before they can imagine having a great season, but this year is probably more about setting the foundation for the organization’s future. And a big part of that is making sure the offensive line, receiver group, defense, etc. are all set up to give Mendoza the best possible chance to succeed once he does take over as the starter.

One key fantasy nugget: Running back Ashton Jeanty, last year’s No. 6 pick, caught 55 passes for 346 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. Multiple people told me the team expects him to be a bigger part of the passing game this season.

The Raiders say that Jeanty was a tough tackle in 2025 when they got him to the second level of the defense. They just don’t feel as if they did a good enough job of getting him out in space. Rookie Mike Washington Jr. is the player behind Jeanty, and the team likes him a lot, but it looks as if Las Vegas is planning for Jeanty’s role to get only bigger. The team believes he’s capable of much more.

Best of the rest:

• Crosby is practicing fully, looks healthy and is all-in on being a Raider. He’s on the practice field sooner than the Raiders expected after his offseason knee surgery. Crosby has had conversations with ownership, coaches and executives in the building, and the message to him has been: “We can’t change the past, let’s focus on what we need to do to help the Raiders win.” And the organization says he has fully bought into that. Does that mean he couldn’t eventually be traded, even at November’s trade deadline? Of course not. If someone came and offered two first-rounders again, the Raiders would be silly to not at least consider it. But they don’t sound eager to move on from him, and he doesn’t sound as if he wants to move on from them.

• The Raiders operated free agency under the belief that Crosby wouldn’t be on the team after they originally traded him (before the deal was nixed), so they signed Kwity Paye. They also drafted Keyron Crawford from Auburn in the third round, and they believe Malcolm Koonce is back to being the player he was before his 2024 injury. So the Raiders believe they have a lot of depth at the edge rusher position.

• Wide receiver is a spot where the Raiders have a lot of questions. They don’t really have a true “X” receiver and are looking for some players to step up in camp. They signed former Vikings receiver Jalen Nailor in free agency, and they think he has more to offer than he was able to show behind first-round picks Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. But 2023 third-round pick Tre Tucker is probably the player in the group the Raiders say can take the biggest step forward this season. Second-year players Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton Jr. have been inconsistent in camp. Sixth-round rookie Malik Benson from Oregon has flashed and gotten a lot of outside attention for his performance, but he needs to show he can sustain his performance outside of a controlled practice environment. There is opportunity for everyone in this group, and the hierarchy has yet to sort itself out. I do think tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer will be on the field together a lot, but the Raiders are desperate for someone in the passing game to establish themselves as a threat so they don’t have to go to, say, Denver and worry about Pat Surtain II covering Bowers.

• Left tackle Kolton Miller is back and looks healthy after last year’s season-ending knee injury, and the Raiders obviously hope he addresses a lot of the offensive line concerns (along with the expensive addition of center Tyler Linderbaum). They also believe Kubiak’s offensive system will help Miller showcase his athleticism.

• The Raiders drafted four defensive backs, including injured Jermod McCoy out of Tennessee. McCoy was viewed by some as a first-round talent but fell into the fourth round because of health concerns. He sat out practice the day I was there, but the team said it was part of his recovery plan and that it was the first camp practice in which he hadn’t participated. They expect McCoy to be healthy for Week 1, though he’s still getting back up to speed in terms of being in football shape, and his role at the outset of the season remains unclear. The Raiders have been impressed with fifth-round rookie Hezekiah Masses from Cal (though go back and read all of the disclaimers about Benson), re-signed Eric Stokes and are hoping 2025 third-round pick Darien Porter takes a second-year jump. But they are loaded with rookies at the corner and safety positions who could have a chance to move up quickly. Cornerback and defensive tackle are two spots where they are still sorting through potential answers for new defensive coordinator Rob Leonard.

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Dates visited: Aug. 6
Location: Florham Park, New Jersey

Best thing I saw/heard: The David Bailey-Armand Membou battles on the edge are a sign of things to come. It sounds as if Bailey and Membou — the prized back-to-back top picks of general manager Darren Mougey — have been going at it all camp. So I caught up with Membou to get the lowdown on the Jets’ rookie edge rusher, as well as his own growth in Year 2.

“[Bailey has] been giving me a lot of great work,” Membou said. “His speed off the ball, and also how he can go from speed to power, it’s been a challenge going against him. It’s been back-and-forth. It was fun.”

It didn’t take long for Membou to realize the Jets have a “hell of a player” in Bailey, who has refined pass-rush skills for a rookie and will pair with Will McDonald IV to form a solid edge duo.

“He has that ability to [be great], and he’s a hard worker, so I know he’ll be successful,” Membou said.

The battles with Bailey have not affected Membou’s confidence. He earned a reputation as an elite run blocker in 2025, and his plan for 2026 and beyond is simple: “Eventually put myself in the conversation as one of the premier tackles in the league.”

“Pro Bowls and All-Pros are great, but [what] I want is when that rookie D-end comes in his room and asks his vets who’s the best tackle in the league, I want them to say, ‘No. 70 from the Jets, he’s that dude,'” Membou said. “That’s kind of my mentality.”

One key fantasy nugget: Though Garrett Wilson is the clear-cut No. 1 WR and is cooking with quarterback Geno Smith in camp, Adonai Mitchell should not be overlooked. The Jets are looking for Mitchell to make a sizable jump. He seems to be moving past whatever was holding him back in 1½ seasons with the Colts. Mitchell has to prove it during the regular season, but he’s gaining chemistry with Smith and is in a contract year, adding urgency to his performance.

Best of the rest:

• The Jets haven’t had a top-20 offense in over a decade, but people with the team are optimistic about how the passing game looks so far. Smith is a big part of that. I heard from more than one person on the ground that Smith is “throwing the s—” out of the ball. On one red zone sequence last week, Smith hit five different receivers, including fullback Andrew Beck in the back of the end zone for a score. Coach Aaron Glenn likes that. “Guys have confidence that when the routes are stretched down the field, that he’s going to let it rip,” Glenn said of Smith.

• Speaking of Smith, the bones of coordinator Frank Reich’s passing game should promote the spread-it-around approach. Reich’s background is in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end). The Jets want to dabble in two-tight end looks to stay multiple, but rookie Kenyon Sadiq’s absence (it should be a few more weeks after his hernia setback) could affect that plan slightly in the short term. The word on the ground is Reich is open to new ideas and will implement them. But it also wouldn’t surprise to see Smith operating from 11 personnel fairly often.

• The Jets have completed more than a dozen trades in the Mougey era, but now is a relatively quiet time for the franchise, as it is for most teams. Though that could always change as roster churning happens leaguewide, the Jets do seem more content with their roster now than, say, last August when they traded for defensive tackles Harrison Phillips and Jowon Briggs. And the addition of steady veterans, such as linebacker Demario Davis and defensive tackle David Onyemata, has helped from a culture standpoint. As the team maps out what it will look like from 2027 to 2029, it doesn’t see a bare cabinet. Three players are under contract past 2028 (Wilson, guard Joe Tippmann and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick), and nine players are on rookie deals.

• Smith made a point to mention tight end Jelani Woods when discussing pass catchers coming along nicely in camp. Woods’ career was derailed by injuries in Indianapolis, but he’s very talented. With Sadiq out, perhaps he can work himself into a prominent role.

• Glenn can exhale when a Jets defender breaks through with an interception on a Sunday. Last season’s zero-interception performance was jarring. The addition of Fitzpatrick should help. But the Jets are also hoping that cornerback Brandon Stephens’ sticky coverage skills will lead to picks. Stephens was coveted in free agency last year because he’s known as a sneaky-good cover guy. But his money was capped because of his lack of ball production; the Jets are aiming to change that with him, hoping for a breakthrough.

• Fourth-round pick Cade Klubnik is eyeing the QB2 role. Good preseason performances would aid his case, and he should be able to beat out Brady Cook and Bailey Zappe. The early signs are promising.

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Dates visited: Aug. 6
Location: Latrobe, Pennsylvania

Best thing I saw/heard: The defensive line is a preposterously deep unit. Cameron Heyward was off for the day on veteran rest, which left the defensive tackle rotation with Keeanu Benton (on a contract year, about to get paid mightily), 2025 first-rounder Derrick Harmon (had a good first season), 2025 fourth-rounder Yahya Black (one of the largest people in the league) and veteran Sebastian Joseph-Day. Even without Heyward, the DT room caused serious problems during running game install — Black most notably. He could be the first-team nose tackle if Pittsburgh needs it.

Perhaps more exciting is the edge room. T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig are all veteran pass rushers on big extensions. There’s a little bit of unspoken tension there — three high-value edge rushers, but only two edges on a football field — that could get resolved by this time next season. Of course, Highsmith has dealt with injury problems, which creates room for Herbig. Watt is 31 years old and has had the two lowest pressure rates of his career in the past two seasons. If I had to guess, one of Highsmith or Watt will be off the roster by this time next year. After all, the three pass rushers are three of the six biggest cap hits on the team in 2027. Simply from a resource allocation perspective, this much money at one position doesn’t make sense.

But for this season, it’s kind of sick. New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham is demonstrating a willingness to move Watt around that the previous staff lacked. Watt famously lined up only over the right tackle under former coach Mike Tomlin, but he has flipped between the left and right during camp. This makes it easier for Graham to hide Watt from double-teams or align him against a tackle who might struggle with his particular brand of speedy upfield rushes.

Of course, that doesn’t solve the two edges issue. So Graham has been experimenting with Herbig as a stand-up linebacker mugged in the A-gap on blitz downs. It’s a new job, and a much different one than sprinting off the corner. But that alignment will be less about head-on rushes against elite centers and more about loops and twists in conjunction with second-level blitzes.

The Steelers had 37 snaps last season with all three pass rushers on the field, so this isn’t a totally new idea. But with such a deep room along the outside and the interior, the Steelers’ pass rush should build in strength as games progress into the fourth quarter — and as the season progresses into the winter. It might be our last year to enjoy the Heyward/Watt duo that has defined the past decade of Steelers football, and I intend to enjoy it while I can.

One key fantasy nugget: It’s pretty clear out of camp that the Steelers aren’t going to sprint back to the heyday of Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers on offense. Pittsburgh spent most of the day I was at camp under center in multiple-tight end sets. It was an install day, and sometimes you catch a team installing a certain chapter of its playbook that ends up less featured when the season hits. But given the conversations I had while I was there, I’m confident the identity of the 2026 Steelers will be similar to the identity of the 2025 Steelers — running the ball out of heavy sets.

For fantasy, this means a few things. I can’t get a lean on Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle, but I’m confident both will be used enough to be playable in any given week. Dowdle is a more-than-capable receiving back, and I think he’ll bite into Warren’s catches more than most people realize. Warren is a spectacular tackle-breaker, and I think he’ll bite into Dowdle’s carries more than most people realize. The Steelers will be a run-heavy team, as they need a strong play-action game to get any explosives out of Rodgers’ arm.

Best of the rest:

• The heavier the personnel, the fewer snaps there are for slot receivers. Though the buzz in Pittsburgh is that third-year receiver Roman Wilson has rounded the corner and developed a workable chemistry with Rodgers, I’m not sure just how many snaps he can get behind DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. Even blocking receiver Ben Skowronek was getting heavy usage relative to Wilson, who is relegated more to clear passing sets at this time.

• Germie Bernard ran almost exclusively with the second-stringers during 11-on-11s and struggled with some of the finer details of the playbook — blocking assignments, motion, etc. Some Day 2 receivers break into the starting lineup quickly; some take time. Bernard looks like more of the second category to me.

• I didn’t realize the Steelers had flipped both Troy Fautanu (tackle) and Mason McCormick (guard) from the right side to the left this offseason. Offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio told me it was the staff’s idea, but the players were receptive given their success playing beside each other and experience playing on the left side in college. Fautanu, McCormick and center Zach Frazier form about as good of a young offensive line bedrock as you can find in the league. If Max Iheanachor can stay healthy and win the right tackle job, Pittsburgh has something here.

• I asked Angelichio, who was a tight ends coach in the league for over a decade, if he has ever coached anyone like Darnell Washington. “Maybe Josh Oliver?” Washington looks every bit of 280, maybe 290 pounds and what he opens up in the play-action passing game — as one of a few tight ends who can truly block a pass rusher one-on-one — cannot be understated in value. For a quarterback like Rodgers, who needs clean pockets to operate at this point in his career, having a tight end who is essentially a sixth offensive linemen is particularly valuable.

• I saw a lot more of rookie fifth-rounder Riley Nowakowski than I expected, especially at fullback. I asked Angelichio about him: “He’s a smart kid. We’re just going to keep handing him more of the playbook and seeing what he can do. We’re excited.” With Nowakowski, Washington, and the ever-reliable Pat Freiermuth, the Steelers can really challenge teams that want to play with light boxes and nickel personnel.

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Dates visited: Aug. 5
Location: Philadelphia

Best thing I saw/heard: Quarterback Jalen Hurts is looking like a viable dual threat again. The session I attended was a lighter day, but Hurts executed a designed run multiple times, and he looks as if he’s moving well. A team source agreed, noting Hurts looks “quicker and faster.” Hurts averaged nearly 700 rushing yards per season from 2021 to 2024, but that production dipped to 421 yards last year.

The tush push isn’t going away, with new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion recently telling reporters the play is “extremely effective.” But based on early observations, I’m expecting Hurts to get to open space a little more often than last season, when he averaged around 6.5 attempts.

Hurts says he feels as if he’s also making strides in Mannion’s passing game. He has doubled down on the details of the under-center offense, particularly the footwork. He says it’s all about sequencing and marrying the feet with the eyes. Mannion noticed that Hurts honed in on this particular area very early in the offseason, allowing the pair to then dig in on the big picture of attacking defenses.

“In the end, you’re still playing the position, and you want to play the position the same way — play with your feet, sweep through your reads, know exactly where you’re supposed to go with the ball,” Hurts said. “[Know] where your alerts are, whether it’s down the field or whether it’s a man alert, just try and play fast. But that is more so just understanding what you’re doing, what we’re trying to attack, being on the same page and playing each play.”

One observation from people here: The offensive operation is a little cleaner than it was last season. Going up against this stout Eagles defense every day requires that.

One key fantasy nugget: Dontayvion Wicks is more than a camp standout. The former Packer should be a big factor in the passing game. Multiple people with the team brought up his legit play unprompted. Wicks has length and the ability to high-point the ball, and Hurts throws a good deep ball.

Hurts calls Wicks “twitchy,” a player who “attacks the ball” and one who nudged him all offseason to gather for passing sessions. The two connected on a big gain between two defenders when I was in Philly. Some with the Eagles felt as if Wicks’ modest production in Green Bay was a byproduct of a loaded offense and lack of chances more than poor performance. He needed the right opportunity. It appears he has it now.

Best of the rest:

• The sentiment is consistent when talking to Eagles people: The defense has looked unbelievable so far in camp. Though Philadelphia has had a stout unit under coordinator Vic Fangio, this group is primed for another jump. As cornerback Cooper DeJean told me, Fangio is always adding “a layer on top of a layer” as far as creativity and new ideas each offseason, which keeps the Eagles fresh.

• DeJean did not lobby to play more cornerback in light of Fangio sliding him to safety this season. For one, he says he sees himself as a versatile chess piece. And his functions as a safety or nickel corner are similar. Those lines are blurred now more than ever as skilled coordinators scheme up elite defensive backs around the ball in interchangeable ways. DeJean is good enough to start thinking about what his market will look like in the 2027 offseason, when he’s eligible for an extension. Not being a prototypical “outside corner” role shouldn’t affect his bottom line too much, even though he could absolutely play outside.

• One big name to watch for 2027 free agency is defensive end Moro Ojomo. The Eagles paid defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis this offseason, and they often do such things with the understanding that good supporting players must walk (i.e. Milton Williams two offseasons ago). Ojomo is potentially next. He’ll have significant free agency interest if Philly lets him slide out of town.

• Running back Saquon Barkley is known as the ultimate good teammate who doesn’t create issues internally, but whispers began last year that he would welcome running the ball from under center more often. That way, he can see the linebackers and safeties more clearly and set up big gains. And big gains from Barkley would make Hurts’ job much easier. When the Eagles won the Super Bowl two seasons ago, Barkley had 17 runs of 20-plus yards. Last season, he had four.

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Dates visited: Aug. 5
Location: Santa Clara, California

Best thing I saw/heard: If there’s a silver lining to the rash of early camp injuries the 49ers have suffered, it’s that they know they can overcome them. I was talking after practice with veteran left tackle Trent Williams, and he told me the feeling in the locker room is one of supreme confidence after reaching the second round of the playoffs despite significant long-term injuries to quarterback Brock Purdy, linebacker Fred Warner, edge rusher Nick Bosa and many others.

“I think that year did so much good for us, just in the belief and the culture and in the locker room,” Williams said. “Because that’s what won games, was the culture. It wasn’t the players. For so long we’ve heard, ‘Aw, y’all got seven All-Pros, seven Pro Bowlers, that’s why y’all win.’ And then we do without all those guys and we still find ways to beat really good teams and work our way into a playoff win. And yeah, once [George] Kittle was out, it was pretty much curtains, but what is there not to believe in?”

Third-year wideout Ricky Pearsall is the most significant of the injuries, as he’s having knee surgery and will sit out the season. The day I was at their camp, the Niners were practicing without wide receivers Mike Evans, Christian Kirk and De’Zhaun Stribling, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, Bosa and defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa, among others. Oh, and coach Kyle Shanahan is not fully recovered from injuries sustained during a car crash a few weeks ago.

“It was a little different, but I’m proud of everyone for how they handled it,” general manager John Lynch said of the chaotic start to training camp. “Everybody rallied. We’ve got good veteran leadership, so those guys really stepped up, and a lot of coaches that have been around us for a while. As many who have been plucked and gone away, we do have some continuity. So, it just kind of took care of itself.”

Evans is the big offseason addition, and he has been out about a week now with a Grade 1 quad strain that the 49ers say won’t threaten his Week 1 status. After 12 years building a Hall of Fame-caliber career with the Buccaneers, Evans could help the Niners evolve their offense.

“I think Mike Evans is going to be the biggest benefactor for us,” Williams said. “Just because you can’t have your safeties keyed in on filling the gaps. Because you can’t leave him 50-50, you can’t leave him one-on-one. And that’s the one thing that this offense in my opinion didn’t do as much, was attack downfield. Now, with the receiver room we have, and having the threats we have, I don’t know if you can just have everybody zero in on Christian [McCaffrey].”

McCaffrey is coming off a huge season that saw him catch 102 passes for 924 yards and seven touchdowns to go along with 1,202 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. But the 49ers ranked only 24th in the NFL with 106.9 rushing yards per game in 2025. Williams said those numbers reflect the fact that teams saw McCaffrey as “the No. 1 face on the board” when game-planning, and he says he believes the wide receiver upgrades will open things up for the run game.

“[Evans] is a guy that, you basically have to play him with two,” Williams said. “He’s going to occupy two sets of eyes, 50-50 balls aren’t really 50-50. And he’s a deep threat, he’s always been that. Just one of the more dynamic receivers in the league.”

One key fantasy nugget: Williams has a pretty good track record when I’ve asked him for 49ers fantasy tips in previous camps, and his eyes lit up when I asked about second-round rookie Stribling.

“He’s going to be a player. I promise you that,” Williams said. “He’s like Jauan [Jennings], same body type, but he runs 4.3. And his 4.3 speed shows in the game. His acceleration, it shows every time he touches the ball. And I think he’s going to be a guy who, early, he’ll get off fast when people aren’t planning on stopping him and stuff, and then once he’s jotted down as a real threat, then it opens up everything else, too.”

Best of the rest:

• With so many receivers injured, Demarcus Robinson and newly signed Deebo Samuel Sr. were the first two up in drills the day I was there. The Niners brought back Samuel mainly with an eye toward using him as a kick returner. But he has had plenty of opportunity to work with the first-team offense early in camp, and the team has been impressed with how quick and fast he has looked. Samuel could have a role in the offense that looks a little like the one he used to have there.

• Kittle is still working his way back from that January Achilles tear, but he’s making good progress, and the team says it believes it will have him back at some point early in the season. Week 1 isn’t totally out of the question, though the fact that the Niners open against the Rams in Australia is likely to give them pause about putting a still-recovering 32-year-old tight end on a flight that long.

• The Niners will head to Melbourne eight days before that opener against the Rams, who are taking a near-opposite approach and planning to fly in the day before the game. San Francisco has made a habit of leaving Friday for Sunday games in different time zones. And Williams said they believe so much in getting acclimated early that they even flew Friday for a Sunday matchup at the Rams a few years back despite no change in time zone.

• The Brandon Aiyuk situation is a nonfactor. I asked a couple of people about it, but the Niners have pushed him out of their minds this camp. He’s still on the reserve/left squad list, which means they don’t have to pay him or even cut him. If he decided to apply for reinstatement, they’d have to make a move by Sept. 1, when he has a roughly $25 million roster bonus that vests. They’d almost certainly release him in that case rather than have to pay that bonus, but unless and until he gets himself reinstated, they don’t have to do anything.

• Raheem Morris returns as defensive coordinator, replacing Robert Saleh, who is the new head coach of the Titans. Williams said the defense looks a lot different under Morris, and in a good way. “I think it’s a breath of fresh air, because it brings deception with the defense,” Williams said. “Whereas Robert Saleh was going to play very sound, defense swarm, not a bunch of deception, just really well-coached football. Raheem plays on you because he has a lot of deception.”

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Dates visited: Aug. 5
Location: Berea, Ohio

Best thing I saw/heard: Rookie hype in training camp can be a dangerous thing. Everyone is thirsty to believe in the next big thing. I am generally tepid on all rookies, though. When I tour camps, the primary thing I’m looking for is a sense of belonging. Everyone drafted looks great when they’re dusting players at the college ranks. Coaches and personnel executives tell horror stories of first-year players who entered camp and evidently did not belong: too thin, too weak, too slow, too fearful of contact. The biggest box for a rookie to check is one of physical benchmarks.

Wide receiver Denzel Boston smashes it in this regard. He has clear pro size at 6-foot-4 with a well-built frame, and he knows how to use it. He pushes off with strength, and he attacks throws away from his frame with length and hand size. But it’s the smoothness with which he’s in and out of his routes that truly stands out. He has shorter strides for a taller receiver, which allows him to gather himself more quickly and sink his weight more easily than other jump-ball specialists. You can tell he’ll be a great possession receiver on quick-breaking routes (think Michael Pittman Jr. or Drake London) because of his ability to snap into routes and box smaller corners out from the catch point.

The splash of cold water is easy to find. Boston won’t be an elite separator because he lacks elite quickness or explosiveness. Sure, but I can make do without those elite traits when a receiver has great size and excellent technique for addressing the football — especially with sufficient speed. Watching Boston move at camp made it immediately evident to me that he has the sufficient speed, and everything else looks as promised.

The last time I left a camp feeling this way about a rookie pass catcher was in 2023 after Lions camp. I watched a second-round tight end named Sam LaPorta snag every Jared Goff pass — inaccurate, into contact, down the field — with reliable hands and pro-level consistency. You could feel the growing trust in the building from the offensive coaching staff and the quarterback. It’s harder to find in Cleveland, as it’s a new coaching staff and a quarterback battle. But the undercurrent of “we have to funnel the ball to this guy” is growing.

Maybe the Browns’ offense will be so limited by QB inconsistency that we never see it for Boston in Year 1. But this is my flag plant of my entire camp tour. This guy has what it takes to be a WR1 in the league.

One key fantasy nugget: New coach Todd Monken spent the past few years in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson and is unsurprisingly acquainted with the danger of the quarterback run game. Of course, Monken has also coordinated offenses for Baker Mayfield and Jameis Winston, and has not always needed a true dual-threat quarterback. Still, on my day in camp, I saw a lot of short-yardage option running from Deshaun Watson, who was taking snaps with the first team on the Browns’ current pattern of alternating days. Watson is coming back from a complicated Achilles recovery, and I’m not sure he’s the same athlete he was before. But over his last three seasons with the Texans (2018-2020), he averaged 98 carries for 509 yards and 5.4 touchdowns over a 17-game season.

I think both Watson and Shedeur Sanders will start a decent chunk of games this season, and nobody should be rushing to draft either in their upcoming fantasy drafts. But if and when Watson is in line to start, I’m expecting substantial involvement in the running game — and that means easy fantasy points for someone filling a bye week spot or replacing an injured QB1.

Best of the rest:

• First-year defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg has a tough task in Cleveland. He must retain the elite performance of Jim Schwartz’s old unit … but without Myles Garrett. Rutenberg coached under Jeff Ulbrich and Robert Saleh with the Jets, then followed Ulbrich to Atlanta, so his philosophy on how defenses win is encouragingly similar to Schwartz’s: attack. When I asked around about players who are standing out to the new defensive staff, I got Mike Hall Jr. a lot. He’s an undersized, penetrating defensive tackle who was starting to shine under Schwartz.

• If the Browns start five new offensive linemen in Week 1 — which they’re currently on track to do — it’ll be one of the rarer sights for a rebuilding team. It’s a challenge to get those players all on the same page and speaking the same language. Left guard Zion Johnson has never taken a snap alongside center Elgton Jenkins, nor next to right guard Teven Jenkins, nor next to right tackle Tytus Howard. Left tackle Spencer Fano is new to NFL football altogether. Procedural issues and miscommunications abound in camp, but those are the expected growing pains. I asked general manager Andrew Berry about the total rebuild along the offensive line and the philosophical approach. “What we felt like with the offensive line specifically, we felt like it was a better interior class [in free agency] and a better tackle class in the draft.” Note that the Browns traded an interior player (Wyatt Teller) for a tackle (Howard) as part of their refresh. And they drafted another tackle (Austin Barber) in the third round, as well.

• Second-year linebacker Carson Schwesinger, fresh off his Defensive Rookie of the Year season, was even better than the front office thought he could be when they took him with the No. 33. Schwesinger’s distinctive talent is his ability to get skinny and flexible in the hole and get at least a hand or a shoulder involved in the tackle. With 156 combined tackles in 2025, he is the most productive rookie tackler since Shaquille Leonard (2018). He credits his college LB coach — Ken Norton Jr., the linebackers coach of the Legion of Boom Seahawks — with this skill. Schwesinger recalls a favorite line of Norton’s: “If it wiggles, tackle it.”

• Don’t let Browns first-round receiver KC Concepcion fade in Boston’s spotlight. He also looks plenty ready for NFL action.

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Dates visited: Aug. 4
Location: Owings Mills, Maryland

Best thing I saw/heard: Lamar Jackson was stretching the field and connecting with a new playmaker on the outside. What seems clear from watching offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s offense is that Baltimore wants chunk plays. Jackson, who was working from under center often, was aggressively throwing downfield when the timing was right, sometimes from play-action.

Much is made of Jackson’s adjustment to the new scheme, but as one Ravens source pointed out, “He can make magic with any scheme.”

Translation: Don’t overthink it. Jackson is still Jackson. He also looks in sync with head coach Jesse Minter and Doyle. Jackson has been known to huddle up with Doyle on the sidelines at times between series.

“Every day, he’s just committed to our process of understanding this offense and what to do,” tight end Mark Andrews told me. “He’s adding so many things to his repertoire and getting better and better and being the leader that he’s always been, but growing even more.”

Multiple Jackson deliveries went to rookie Ja’Kobi Lane, who “has continued to flash,” per Minter. Lane has all the physical tools. How much he plays will depend on what he absorbs mentally. He’s coming along in that area, and he has made big plays even since I left Maryland a few days ago.

In past years, the Ravens had leaned on big-name but aging receivers such as DeAndre Hopkins, Odell Beckham Jr. and DeSean Jackson. But with a new coaching staff, now feels like the time to lean on general manager Eric DeCosta’s younger draft picks for bigger roles. Enter Lane, Devontez Walker and Elijah Sarratt. This is the way.

One key fantasy nugget: Running back Derrick Henry will get his normal heavy workload this season. His coordinator comes from Chicago’s third-ranked rushing attack, after all. But it might look slightly different at times. For example, Henry got out on the perimeter on designed runs a few times during the practice I saw. Andrews calls Henry “a scary sight” going downhill on the perimeter, with the ability to outrun or outmuscle defensive backs. The Ravens will also try to get Henry involved in the passing game at least somewhat, though that has never been his thing in heavy doses.

Best of the rest:

• The Ravens’ three-safety looks — which Baltimore will scheme up often, even if offenses try to get it out of them — should catalyze a defense that must reestablish itself after a down year. Having Kyle Hamilton as the big nickel is when Baltimore is at its best. “Having somebody bigger bodied in the box [and] somebody who is versatile, having three people out there that can play multiple positions and move around at different parts of the field, I feel like [that] is beneficial and it is helpful,” Jaylinn Hawkins said. “[It] helps keep the scheme identifiable, and you can play together and play fast. It is very versatile.” And Malaki Starks, who played heavy post safety last season, should get more chances closer to the line of scrimmage to disrupt the offense. Hawkins calls Starks “very instinctual, rangy, long and can cover.”

• How the Ravens speak about Zay Flowers paints a picture as to why Baltimore made him one of the highest-paid receivers last week. “He can score from the 1 and take it all the way to the top,” Hawkins said. “He can hit the home run.” He’s a versatile option who will line up all over the field. Added corner Nate Wiggins: “He’s just elusive. He’s got the speed. He’s got the quickness, the [ability to get] in and out of breaks. [It’s] really everything a receiver needs. He’s not a little receiver — he plays big. He’s got all the traits.”

• Cornerback Marlon Humphrey is coming off a down season, but the Ravens say they believe he can rebound. He was still disruptive around the ball but had mental lapses in coverage that the team says it feels are correctable. The Ravens have carried his $26.3 million cap hit through the offseason and seem confident he will give them a productive season.

• The battle for the center position is interesting. I entered Ravens camp thinking Ethan Pocic would be the favorite, and though he might still end up winning it, the Ravens are playing this one down the middle with Pocic, Danny Pinter and Jovaughn Gwyn. Why I’m not sleeping on Gwyn: He has a long history with offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford, who recruited him out of high school while an assistant at NC State and coached him for three years with the Falcons.

• Why are the Ravens so excited about first-round guard Olaivavega Ioane? He’s a throwback Raven with modernized physical tools. He will bring the offensive line much-needed toughness, but he can also get out in space and move.

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Dates visited: Aug. 4
Location: Oxnard, California

Best thing I saw/heard: Stephen Jones, the Cowboys’ chief operating officer and co-owner, loves hearing stories about first-round pick Caleb Downs, the safety who played first at Alabama and then Ohio State. Jones’ favorite one? When Downs was still a senior in high school, he went to spend the spring semester with the Alabama football team.

“He was there for the bowl game,” Jones said. “He had his iPad and was acting and studying like he was going to play, and they were like, ‘Caleb, you can’t play in the game,’ but he’s studying his iPad like he’s got to know every last little detail of the game plan. And he knew he wasn’t going to hit the field.”

Jones and the rest of the Cowboys’ brass count themselves lucky to have Downs. They had the 12th pick in this year’s draft and felt sure the division-rival Giants were going to take Downs with one of the two picks New York had in the top 10. When that didn’t happen, Dallas traded up one spot to No. 11 to make sure no one else snuck ahead to get him.

“He’s doing great,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer told me. “For a rookie, so instinctive, doesn’t repeat mistakes. When you can play right away as a freshman at Alabama for Nick Saban, you’ve got some intelligence about you.”

Downs should be a key player immediately in first-time defensive coordinator Christian Parker’s defense. The day I was at practice, the Cowboys moved Downs all over the field. He played some safety, played some nickel, lined up to cover CeeDee Lamb a few times when Lamb went into the slot. The Cowboys think the nickel spot is one where Downs could make a big impact as a rookie, since they see him and Jalen Thompson as players who can easily swap between that spot and the safety position and be interchangeable as a result.

One thing that really struck me was how much the Cowboys will be expecting out of very young players — and coaches — on the defensive side. Big things are expected from Downs and fellow first-rounder Malachi Lawrence. Third-round linebacker Jaishawn Barham from Michigan is the talk of camp so far. Dallas has been impressed with Shavon Revel Jr., who was a third-round pick in 2025 but didn’t play much as a rookie because of injury. And Parker, who was coaching Eagles defensive backs the past few years under Vic Fangio in Philadelphia, is 34 years old and a playcaller for the first time.

“Really good,” Schottenheimer said of Parker. “Great conviction, knows exactly what he wants, moves the pieces around, players love him. There’s a line of players waiting outside his door to talk to him, because they know how smart he is. He’s awesome.”

Dallas finished fourth in the league last season in offensive EPA … and 32nd in defensive EPA. The Cowboys need Parker’s side of the ball to advance quickly with the help of all those young guys if they want to get back to the postseason in 2026.

One key fantasy nugget: I don’t know exactly how many balls tight end Jake Ferguson caught the day I was there, but it felt like close to 1,000. Look, I’m not going to sit here and tell you whether George Pickens is going to catch more passes than Lamb. The Cowboys like second-year running back Jaydon Blue, but I don’t think he’s a threat to Javonte Williams’ workload. Ryan Flournoy is their third receiver and they trust him, so he could be a fantasy factor if one of the top two wideouts are injured. And you know what Dak Prescott is and is not as a fantasy quarterback. There isn’t a ton to tell you about the Cowboys’ offense that you don’t already know. But my takeaway from camp is that we shouldn’t forget how useful Ferguson can be if you don’t want to use a super-early draft pick on a tight end.

Best of the rest:

• With regard to Blue, the Cowboys were disappointed last season that he was taking a while to mature as an NFL player, and as a result, they didn’t think they could use him much. But they say they feel he has shown improvement in key areas, and they foresee a role for him as a super-speedy back who can bring juice to the offense. Dallas likes the RB room overall, so if something happened to Williams, it could slide in someone like Malik Davis as the early-down guy and keep Blue in whatever the “juice” role is that it has planned for him.

• Schottenheimer has added an extra conditioning element to camp practices that he didn’t have last year: sprints at the end of practice. The weather in Oxnard is pretty awesome, and it’s not as hot as a lot of other camps, so Schottenheimer says he feels he can ask a little more at the end of practices, and that he thinks it will benefit the team’s overall conditioning.

• The Cowboys went into this offseason wanting to set up a left tackle competition between 2024 first-round pick Tyler Guyton and 2024 seventh-round pick Nate Thomas, but Thomas didn’t show them what they were hoping he would. And the day I was there, Schottenheimer announced that the competition was over and Guyton would get all the first-team reps at left tackle.

• Dallas is still trying to figure out who the “green dot” player on the defense is going to be — the one who gets the call in his helmet from Parker and is in charge of keeping things organized on that side of the ball. The Cowboys says they believe Downs could handle it even as a rookie, but they sound inclined to give it to one of the linebackers instead because they’ve handled it well in camp.

• Fourth-round rookie tackle Drew Shelton from Penn State is a player the Cowboys like a lot. He’s not likely to get into the tackle mix right away as a rookie, but he has shown enough this summer that they think they might be able to find a role for him as a jumbo tight end in certain packages this season.

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Dates visited: Aug. 4
Location: Cincinnati

Best thing I saw/heard: The Bengals’ offensive line has a bad reputation — one that head coach Zac Taylor is trying to fix. “There’s this idea that, ‘Oh, we just can’t protect [Joe] Burrow’ … that just isn’t true,” Taylor said.

In the past, this was a real problem for the Bengals. They had a pass block win rate of 50.7% from 2022 to 2024 — the worst in the league over that three-year stretch. Last season was a big step forward at 57.6% (still below league average but far more playable). Of the three Bengals quarterbacks who played the most, Burrow had the lowest pressure rate (31.9%), below the league average of 34.2%.

Of course, Burrow gets the ball out faster than Joe Flacco and Jake Browning, which keeps pressure numbers down. And Burrow doesn’t get blitzed (22.1%, one of the lowest rates in the NFL) because of how quickly he sees it and finds the right answer in the passing game. But this has always been true of Burrow. The improvement of the offensive line has allowed Burrow to hold onto the ball longer than ever before (2.80-second time to throw) and allowed Taylor and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher to rely on quick-game less (42.1% of Burrow’s dropbacks, a career low). Nobody’s going to mistake the Bengals’ line for the Broncos’ unit or the Eagles’ blockers. But this is a functional group.

The biggest laurel for this improvement goes to second-year offensive line coach Scott Peters. Some teams ask their OL coach to have a big hand in designing the running game. In Cincinnati, where the scheme is pretty well established given the long tenure of Taylor, Burrow and Pitcher, Peters can spend more time working on individual technique with the Bengals’ young pass protectors. Rookie third-rounder Dylan Fairchild played his way into a starting role last season, and second-year right tackle Amarius Mims took a step.

Cincinnati returns all five starters from last season’s line, and with that comes huge expectations. The Bengals have a nearly unprecedented level of offensive continuity in the modern age. Taylor has been calling plays for Burrow since 2020, second only to Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes for the longest quarterback-coach relationship active in the league. Burrow has been throwing to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins — two top-20, probably top-15 receivers — for that entire time. His current offensive coordinator (Pitcher) was his quarterbacks coach when he entered the league. And finally, the Bengals are returning some level of stability along an improved line. With that comes not just an increased trust in pass protection but also the best running game Burrow has ever had in Cincinnati.

There’s a reason why it feels like the year in Cincinnati, and why Burrow is speaking with so much confidence in camp. Everything — on both sides of the ball — is in place.

One key fantasy nugget: The Bengals have been lining up under center quite a bit during training camp, and the results have been mixed, to put it charitably. Taylor comes from the Sean McVay tree, which has typically been able to get under center and run the ball for the sake of the play-action pass. Yet with Burrow, who prefers to see the entire defense at the snap, the Bengals have never become comfortable with a downhill running game or motion-heavy pre-snap operation. Could that finally be changing this season?

I’d tap the brakes on that. When I asked Taylor about the under-center snaps, he emphasized that the Bengals hope to lead more games this season (because of the defensive improvements) and accordingly need a committed running game to salt the clock in a four-minute offense. There’s also the desire to show defenses different, unscouted looks — to have some formational versatility in their back pocket should they stumble across a defense that they really think they can pick on in the under-center game.

Because of the Bengals’ aforementioned incredible offensive stability, they don’t need to spend as much time in camp worrying about their base offense. Most of the key players have been here for multiple seasons and know what they’re doing. As such, the Bengals’ offense can look a little wacky in August while they experiment with changeups and knuckle curves. The fastball of this offense will remain Burrow in the shotgun, dropping back to throw to Chase or Higgins. I don’t think a big schematic overhaul is underway in Cincinnati.

Best of the rest:

• I was at camp the day Bryan Cook jumped a route and pick-sixed Burrow during team drills. It was a great two-play sequence for Cook, who picked up and encouraged a winded DJ Turner II after a long sprint in coverage on Chase on the previous rep. It was also a great rep for edge rusher Boye Mafe, who beat Orlando Brown Jr. quick off the left edge and forced an early commitment from Burrow. Talk about a splashy moment for your big free agent moves on defense.

• I saw multiple snaps of running back Chase Brown lined up in the slot, flying across the formation in jet motion as if he were a receiver. Again, the Bengals are very comfortable just trying stuff out on offense at this stage of the summer. But Brown did have 45 snaps in the slot (and another 25 out wide) last season as the Bengals prefer to use him as a pass catcher and not a pass protector. Four of Brown’s five receiving touchdowns in 2025 came with Burrow at QB, and on two of the four, Brown was lined up out wide.

• In my breakouts story I wrote about the emergence of third-year tight end Erick All Jr., who has struggled with health but been a valuable blocker for the Bengals when available. Given the conversations I had at camp, I think the Bengals’ tight end room will start out as a three-player unit between All, Mike Gesicki and Drew Sample. But All is still the player with the most well-rounded skill set; the Bengals particularly enjoy lining him up as a quasi-fullback. If anyone becomes the dominant tight end, it’ll be him.

• I consider myself a Turner evangelist. A third-year breakout, Turner went from Week 1 rotational player to shadowing WR1s by midseason in 2025. He followed Romeo Doubs, Zay Flowers, Jameson Williams and DK Metcalf — a big variety of receiver types — and allowed the Bengals to overload zone coverage opposite him. He got absolutely undressed by Chase during one-on-ones, came back in the next rotation and boxed Chase out of a jump ball. When you ask people in the building what changed for Turner, they talk about his increased mental toughness.