NFL Preseason Week 2 | Overreaction Monday with Rich & Chris Brockman

Chris Brockman went four for four to open Overreaction Monday. Then he brought up load management, and the clean sheet died on the spot.

The breaking news out of Cleveland set the table. Todd Monken named Deshaun Watson the Week 1 starter, which torched the take Chris had teed up and ready. His replacement: Shedeur Sanders will ultimately start more games in 2026 than Watson.

"That's not an overreaction," Rich said.

The reasoning is availability, or the lack of it. Nineteen games in the last five years. Rich stacked his own certainties on top. Watson starts Week 1, and at least the first two, because both are on the road. Then comes Carolina at home in Week 3, where the boos rain down if he has not shown something.

Because that is the last certainty, and Rich would not let it go. Watson is still not over hearing cheers when his Achilles blew out.

"You cannot be a tenable quarterback in a city where you have so overwhelmingly underperformed and think that any boos that come your way are because they're against you," Rich said.

Chris's original take was that if Watson is not QB1, the Browns have to cut him. Rich shot it down on cold logic. They are not letting him land somewhere else and suddenly look like 2019 Watson, and not when Sanders can get dinged up and Dillon Gabriel is not the answer.

Take two: Atlanta. Michael Penix Jr. is cleared for 11-on-11, and Chris says if he shows anything in the final preseason game, he starts Week 1. Not an overreaction either, though Rich took the long way there.

The complication is that the team president, general manager and coach who drafted Penix are all gone, which makes this genuinely apples to apples. Rich's counter had merit too. Start Tua Tagovailoa, see how it goes, bring Penix in later. You do not clear a man for 11-on-11 on August 24th and then throw him at TJ Watt and Cameron Heyward three weeks later. Chris's objection was the division, where giving away three or four early games costs you when eight wins takes the thing.

Take three: the Commanders and Colts are the teams in each conference that most need a good year. Rich walked the league conference by conference looking for a better answer, could not find one, and bought it.

Take four was the one Rich has been waiting on. The Cowboys should be talked about as legitimate NFC favorites.

"It's what I've been saying for weeks and months," he said, noting he called it the minute he finished talking to Brian Schottenheimer at the combine. This is not a Jerry Jones toy hire. The man has a voice and a style, and you saw it over the weekend in second and third stringers playing like the star on their chest meant something.

Then came Christian McCaffrey, back at practice after a mysterious absence that turned out to be load management.

"That is a slippery slope," Chris said. If the NFL allows it, the regular season risks becoming a sham like the NBA's. Leak it slowly, let everyone get comfortable, and suddenly you are load managing in Weeks 5 through 8.

Rich was not having it. Seventeen games. Miss four and that is a quarter of your season, which is nothing like the NBA math. Nobody looks Raheem Morris in the face and puts a lesser team on the field because a healthy man might get hurt.

Overreaction. Streak over.

The rest ran hot. Chris argued a Justin Herbert MVP bumps Joe Burrow out of the big four with Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. Rich granted the whole shebang, MVP and the one seed, then had the Texans one-and-done him in the divisional round on three interceptions and asked if Chris would still make that trade. Lamar and Allen have won playoff games. Burrow made a Super Bowl.

Geno Smith as the best New Jersey quarterback got called an overreaction, with Rich taking the Giants top to bottom, and the Patriots-like jump going to the Giants as well, not the Titans.

One more of these, then the season.