Hands Up If You’re Also Ready for Some Preseason NFL Football!!!

Week one of the preseason calendar kicks off Thursday, which means the teams playing each other are already practicing against each other. Joint practices. The troops are salty.

Tampa and the Jets did not need long. Two players started throwing down, David Bailey among them, and a Jets helmet reportedly went flying 20 yards. Geno Smith then threw not one but two pick-sixes, one of them to Alex Anzalone, who is new to the Bucs.

Cleveland and the Rams found their own trouble. Jared Verse and Spencer Finney went at it, which Rich noted is a fight he personally would like no part of.

The schedule is where the storylines actually stack up. Green Bay at Pittsburgh on Thursday night is Matt LaFleur against the man he replaced, who has now replaced Mike Tomlin, and who beat Tomlin in a Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers, now his quarterback in Pittsburgh. Threading tapestries, Rich called it.

Two hours after that, Titans at San Francisco, where Mike Evans is still not practicing with a quad injury and should not be expected out there.

Bengals and Lions carries the question that will follow Cincinnati all year. Can Joe Burrow be protected? The Bengals plan to play their starters in limited series, enough that fans get to see Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Dexter Lawrence before the night gets away from them.

Lawrence is the reason Rich has Cincinnati as his sleeper team. The Bengals acquired him from the Giants rather than using the tenth overall pick, and social media feeds from Cincinnati camp have been a highlight reel of 97 blowing up plays. Rich anticipated the obvious objection. How can a team with the best wide receiver in football and Joe Burrow be anybody's sleeper?

His answer sets the bar where it belongs. If the Bengals make the Super Bowl, that is a sleeper team.

The Browns are on his sleeper list too, though the quarterbacks appear to be asleep. Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders have yet to grab the reins, the reports feature false starts and illegal motions, and Todd Monken may have thrown something at practice. Outside that position, Rich argued, Cleveland is genuinely talented. Verse in particular wants to prove the Rams made a mistake, which Rich figures will take some doing.

New England and Indianapolis got the best nickname of the segment, the Vinatieri Bowl, plus an alternate suggestion involving deflated footballs. Tommy DeVito is playing, which means cutlets. Drake Maye is not expected to, per the Patriots, though everything remains subject to change.

That brought Rich to the fight he actually wanted. Patriots and Seattle open the season in three weeks, and he does not love it as a first assignment.

"I think the Bears dodged a bullet," he said. He would rather have seen Chicago in that spot as the better matchup, which drew immediate resistance.

The counterargument came fast. Better defense, better run game, better wide receivers, better quarterback. New England is simply the better team, and both clubs sit in that 11 or 12 win range with a division in play.

Rich was unmoved, and he had a scouting report on his opponent. This is a man who spends every summer promising 4,000 passing yards and an MVP candidacy out of Chicago, with no skin in the game to justify it.

The framing that matters is this. Both teams broke out last season. One broke out all the way to the Super Bowl, and the other came close to the NFC Championship game. So which one has the better year?

Sports talk radio, go.