š The Touchdown Collective: Stop us if you can - Allen
Josh Allen, Brock Purdy and Cleveland's QB situation all feature to keep you ahead of the game, one play at a time
In todayās Touchdown Collective thereās the latest on the Tush Push and Cleveland potentially keeping FOUR QBs on their roster in Press Coverage, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys are the topic of Play Call and thereās a mascot for the ages in Get to the Post.
š A bit of housekeepingā¦
The Touchdown Collective is closing in on 150 subscribers, so welcome everybody and thank you, itās great to be around so many like-minded people who love the NFL just as much as I do.
If you have any feedback or thoughts, please write to me using this form with your views, things youād like to see more of, or your takes on anything NFL. Iād love to hear from you.
The Touchdown Collective exists to serve people looking for an easy way to stay on top of the NFL news agenda, so if youāre enjoying what Iām doing here, please share with your friends and family. Thanks, it means a lot. Right, off we goā¦
š° Press Coverage
Buffalo Bills
Josh Allen says there is plenty of skill involved in running the āTush Pushā because not all teams do it - and some manage it much better than others.
The play is still legal after a vote this offseason on potentially banning it on safety grounds but itās here to stay, for another season at least.
And, speaking to Sports Illustrated, league MVP Allen says that was the right decision.
āIām a big believer in if you canāt stop it, keep running it, right? I think that thereās a few teams that do it better than others, but then you look at a few teams that try to do it, and it doesnāt have the same success. Because, one, they maybe donāt practice it enough or, two, they donāt have the guys to do it. And just because a couple teams do it better than others, I donāt feel like it should be banned.
āI understand the merit of what it brings and so I donāt really sway one way or the other. I try to play the game based on the interpretation of the rules. And if that was the rule that was passed, you know, weāll find a different way.
āBut I feel like if you can use it to your benefit, use it to your benefit. If you donāt like it, my advice is to stop it, you know?ā
LA Chargers
LA Times staff writer Thuc Nhi Nguyen has wrapped up the post-minicamp view from Jim Harbaughās side, who, she says, seem confident QB Justin Herbert will be able to attack down the field more often in 2025.
The additions of Treā Harris, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Mike Williams certainly gives Herbert options to stretch the defense, but the Chargers arenāt going to become a one-trick outfit.
āWeāre certainly not going to be just bombs away every play,ā offensive coordinator Greg Roman said. āBut itās going to allow us to attack down the field more, or at least present the opportunity to. Weāll hopefully have that aspect to our offense, as well as our ground-and-pound mentality.ā
Bleacher Report took a look at every NFL teamās latest to-do list, creating a three-point plan for each. Well worth a read.
San Francisco 49ers
George Kittle has defended Niners QB Brock Purdy and says the star of the franchise has been doing āpretty wellā.
Speaking on the Rich Eisen Show (below), Kittle said: āI would say, I donāt know what his winning percentage is, but when you win a lot of games and then two years you go to the NFC championship or better, I think thatās decent.
āOne of my favourite things about Purdy is that everyone calls him the checkdown merchant, and then the last two years heās had the least amount of checkdowns in the NFL as a starting quarterback. So I think he's doing pretty well.ā
Meanwhile, GM John Lynch says the feeling in the Niners facility has been āa little uneasyā given the changes they have made to their roster in letting some veterans go.
āEven though we kind of warned our fans, I think thatās a tough pill to swallow, even if you hear it's happening,ā Lynch told NBC Sports Bay Area on 49ers Talk.
He added: āIād say itās a little uneasy. And you have to understand that youāre executing a plan. And I think when you have that, when you have a process to it, it makes it easier. But there is the unknown.ā
Cleveland Browns
The Browns could employ a unique quarterback strategy for the 2025 season by considering the option of keeping four quarterbacks on their active roster, reports Mary Kay Cabot.
With two, and rarely three, quarterbacks on a roster the norm, the Browns keeping Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders competing for the starting spot would be unconventional at best.
But the strategy is partly fuelled by the low base salaries and cap numbers for all of the QBs, which allows the team to financially support them on the roster.
The cap space for all four is just $7.6m this year (Flacco $2.85m, Pickett $2.63m, Gabriel $1.12m and Sanders $951k).
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers have signed safety DeShon Elliott to a two-year $12.5m deal with $9.21m guaranteed, NFL Networkās Tom Pelissero reported, making for an interesting future with new QB Aaron Rodgers.
With news of Rodgersā likely destination this offseason, Elliott commented on an Instagram post before the signing was complete, saying āleave his ass at the retirement homeā.
Awks.
New York Jets
The New York Jets have gone high-tech with their latest QB approach, adding GoPro cameras to playersā helmets in practice to get a first-hand look in the position rooms afterwards.
And it has been hailed as a huge success.
āItās awesome. Iām just telling you, I canāt believe we didnāt do this before,ā Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand said, as reported by the New York Post. āIt is unbelievable. We can hear him call the play in the huddle. We can hear him at the line of scrimmage, making his check, whatever it needs, so you can see his eyes, where heās going, and then you can see him go through the progression.
āYou can see everything from his vantage point, and we also get some nice tidbits of commentary in there, which is pretty fun to hear, too.ā
š Last weekās poll results ā Q: Will the 49ers mount a challenge this season? Your answer: No, same again (60%).
š Last weekās most clicked: Aaron Rodgers officially signs his one-year deal in Pittsburgh.
š£ļø Play Call
The Touchdown Collectiveās verdict
Dak Prescott says he needs to win a Super Bowl āfor his own sanityā, as I reported on Monday.
We all know what he means. Top-level sportsmen like Dak are driven to win, to compete, to aim for the moon. Itās what makes them who they are.
But most who aim for the moon come up short ā and I fear he will too.
All you really have to do is go back and look at the Cowboysā results since Dak entered the league. There is no real upward trend, no building towards something. Every season āAmericaās Teamā show glimpses of being able to put a run together and, inevitably, it disappears as quickly as it arrived.
And more often than not, itās a mess of their own making.
As you can see in the table above, since Dak entered the league in 2016, the Cowboys have six winning seasons in nine attempts with the best being his first where he was named Offensive Rookie of the Year in a season they finished 13-3.
In five play-off appearances since 2016 the Cowboys have lost in the wildcard round twice and divisional three times.
To put that into context, since 2020 Tampa Bay have topped their division (four) and reached the play-offs (five) as many times as the Cowboys have since 2016 ā and they won a Super Bowl to boot.
And before somebody says, āwell Tampa did it, Dallas can tooā, there is the small matter of a fella named Tom Brady who you could argue was a bit of a difference-maker for the Bucs.
The Cowboys have tried to address some of their shortcomings and give Dak help in the passing game by trading for George Pickens to take some pressure and attention off CeeDee Lamb, but when you have to face Philadelphia and a resurgent Washington twice a season is that really going to be enough?
Dak talked of his legacy and trying to win a Lombardi Trophy in order to secure that. I have a feeling his legacy is already set.
A very solid NFL QB, without whom his team would have no shot whatsoever, but ultimately had things go against him in some key play-off moments while his division became one of the toughest in the league at the same time.
Prescott does make a difference for Dallas - just not enough of one to take them over the edge.
ESPN spoke to scouts across the NFL to take stock of all the best and worst off-season trades and moves so far. Lovely summer reading.
ā Get to the Post
Camerman Shedeur is a menaceā¦
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Chris Rumph was dialled in for choosing his profile picā¦
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
And itās goodbye to a legendā¦
š© Who am I? Iām Michael Ham, the Daily Star Sunday and Sunday Express Sports Editor ā and an avid NFL fan. I have almost 20 years of experience in sports news journalism and Iām the writer behind The Touchdown Collective.
The Touchdown Collective: Your go-to NFL source to
stay one step ahead of the game
Keep up the great work Mike. All good stuff.