Inside: Preseason action: how to scout, who impressed and what’s scheduled this weekend. Only 26 days till kickoff!

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How to scout in August

There’s a term for people who religiously watch preseason football: sickos.

If that’s you, you’re in good company. If not, and you’re open to a lifestyle change, I spoke with three experts to put together this brief guide on how to watch preseason football.

How to watch like a scout, by Ted Nguyen:

“You’re seeing the most vanilla schemes on both sides of the ball, so look for transferable skills and growth. That’s different at each position. For young quarterbacks, you want them to handle the pre-snap operation, make throws in rhythm and not rely on second-reaction plays.

“These games are parts of a larger arc of development, and it’s easy to lose sight of that at times. Carson Beck looked great in the Hall of Fame game, but Beck’s been inconsistent at practice, based on beat reports.”

How to scout for your fantasy team, by Jake Ciely:

“I’m more interested in snap counts in different formations and with starting units, especially if there has been an offensive coordinator or scheme change.

“We’re doing our best to predict so many aspects of each player, which makes usage — whether snaps, touches or formations — much more important than preseason stats.”

Before your next appearance on “The Athletic Football Show,” by co-host Dave Helman:

“The most useful tip I can give for watching preseason football is simple: look for the rookies.

“It’s hard to gauge preseason playing time for almost anyone else on an NFL roster, but rookies will play a lot of snaps these next two weeks, and some of them will be stars in short order. Keep an eye out.”

As for those players, both vets and rookies, who stood out in each category last night …

Preseason Week 1 notebook

Several rookie receivers flashed star potential in yesterday’s preseason action. None more than the No. 33 pick in April’s draft.

All aboard the De’Zhaun Stribling hype train. The 6-foot-2, 207-pound receiver’s debut matched the training camp reports as his impressive hands were on full display against the Titans’ starting corners.

“I don’t know how he missed the first round,” left tackle Trent Williams said during the broadcast. “A guy that big, that can run that hard, as tough as he is, as willing as he is as a blocker, as smart as he is. I don’t understand how we’d miss out on that.”

Stribling caught seven of eight targets for 63 yards in limited action. This 32-yarder was a statement.

The 4.3-speed receiver flashed everything you want to see, and he should be a Week 1 starter. Stock up.

We also saw Fernando Mendoza’s debut. Kirk Cousins started for the Raiders, leading them to a score on his sole series. “It’s his job to lose,” Klint Kubiak said of Cousins, who was sharp against mostly Cardinals starters.

Mendoza came in next and played four drives. One ended in a score, thanks to a 53-yard carry from rookie running back Mike Washington, while another saw the Raiders in field-goal range before a missed 38-yarder. It was a strong start punctuated by this dart.

(Let’s just take a second to pause. Take a deep breath and smile. Football highlights are back.)

Despite the above throw and an admirable stat line (10-of-16 for 97 yards and a touchdown), Mendoza focused on his shortcomings. “I let my teammates down today,” he said afterward. “I need to grow a lot.”

Mendoza will get plenty of time to grow if Cousins builds off the strong start.

Other notes:

Cardinals rookie Jeremiyah Love is fun. He started, ran for 58 yards on 11 carries against mostly Raiders starters, drew comparisons in group chats to Adrian Peterson and made this spin move. Success.

Steelers quarterbacks played well. Mentor Aaron Rodgers sat while Pittsburgh’s backups impressed, specifically Drew Allar. The third-round rookie out of Penn State led three scoring drives, completed 10 of 13 passes and finished with a near-perfect passer rating of 154.8. More takeaways here.

Titans QB Cam Ward underwhelmed. Last year’s No. 1 pick did not look good, missing several open throws and struggling with footwork in Brian Daboll’s offense. Ward finished 5 of 12 for 57 yards against mostly 49ers backups. No. 4 pick Carnell Tate had a quiet debut (three targets, no receptions). It’s preseason Week 1. Exhale, Titans fans.

For more from last night’s action, we’ve got stock reports for the Patriots, Colts, Bengals, Chargers and Lions. For who to watch for this weekend …

Keep an eye on …

It’s a mix of starters and backups in games that kick off at 7 p.m. ET tonight and continue until the Cowboys and Seahawks play at 8 p.m. tomorrow.

How do the Dolphins look? New coach Jeff Hafley has said all of his players should be prepared to play against the Commanders (7 p.m. today), with Malik Willis expected to start in his first game as Miami’s quarterback. His No. 1 receiver might be third-round rookie Caleb Douglas, who is turning heads in camp.

And Browns QBs? Deshaun Watson starts over Shedeur Sanders tomorrow against the Bears (1 p.m.) as the competition continues. (Sanders will start the second game.) I’m more interested in watching rookie receiver Denzel Boston. Most Chicago starters will sit, including Caleb Williams.

We’ve also got the Giants players with the most to gain this weekend, including Odell Beckham Jr., and a similar story for the Vikings, starting with backup quarterback J.J. McCarthy. “Accuracy remains the foremost priority,” per Alec Lewis.

Find the full NFL schedule here.

Extra Points

📺 Buffalo’s new look. No, not the stadium. The defense! Our Robert Mays explains DC Jim Leonhard’s makeover in this video.

🛑 Can Daniels stop LSU? The school wants to give his old No. 5 to another player. That’s fair game. But can he stop them from using his name and likeness? The Athletic investigated.

📃 Seahawks to add Terrion Arnold. The 2024 first-round cornerback is expected to land in Seattle amid legal troubles stemming from an alleged kidnapping incident.

📃 Panthers add Darren Waller. The 33-year-old was once an elite receiving option but has struggled to stay healthy. He joins Carolina after scoring six touchdowns in nine games for Miami last season.

▶️ Most-clicked: Michael Silver’s sit-down with (a very focused) Fernando Mendoza.

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German sprinter Owen Ansah, who is under investigation by his country’s national anti-doping agency, won his second medal of the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, England on Friday with an 19.95s run for 200m gold.

Running with a big tailwind (+3.5m/s), Ansah was third at halfway (10.40s) but closed better than the rest of the field to win by some margin ahead of Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes (silver in 20.16s) and Italian Eseosa Fostine Desalu (bronze, 20.26s).

The 25-year-old adds that to his 100m bronze from Tuesday, when he finished in 10.19s behind British pair Romell Glave (10.09s, gold) and Jeremiah Azu (10.16s, silver).

NADA, the German anti-doping agency, announced last Friday that they had sent a “letter of charge” to Ansah regarding an alleged violation of rule 2.3 of their national code, for which they want a four-year suspension. This concerned an out-of-competition drugs test on July 9th, the day before he raced 100m at the Monaco Diamond League.

NADA commenced “proceedings” against him, the organisation wrote in a press release published last Friday, declaring “refusal or failure to submit to sample collection,” as per rule 2.3. This did not include any mandatory suspension or ban, permitting him to compete at the European Championships.

Ansah “will not accept” the proposed sanction, his lawyer Dr Rainer Tarek Cherkeh told The Athletic in a statement. “Our client has at no point refused to undergo a doping test,” Dr Cherkeh said. “He has at no point refused to provide a sample. And he has at no point said, or given the impression, that he did not wish to undergo a doping test.”

In an interview with German website sport1, Ansah says that an anti-doping officer arrived at his house as he was leaving for the airport to go to Monaco. He says he could not immediately provide a urine sample, having recently used the bathroom, and was not informed of the consequences of not providing a sample.

In the NADA code, evasion is defined as “refusal or failure, without compelling reason, to submit to sampling after being duly notified by a duly authorized person.” Negligent behaviour, such as not being in their stated location as per whereabouts policy (athletes must give a one-hour window each day for random testing) is considered just as wrong as deliberate evasion.

NADA, Ansah’s athlete representative, and the German athletics federation have all been approached by The Athletic for comment.

NADA says that in the event of a suspension, all results since July 9 would be annulled, which would include forfeiting his two European medals, plus the German 100m and 200m national titles that he won at the end of July. Any prize money would have to be given back as well. Ansah told sport1 he was tested in Monaco on the day of his 100m race (July 10th) by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and again by NADA three days later.

The ban proposed by NADA is four years, a standard length for an anti-doping violation, though it would reduce that to three if Ansah accepts wrongdoing, which would run beyond the next Olympic Games in 2028 but could leave him eligible for the 2029 World Championships. This would only commence once a final decision is made (by NADA or another body) or an admission of guilt is given.

Ansah, as per stipulations, has 20 days following receipt of the charge letter to accept it or ask for disciplinary proceedings to start, which would involve taking the course to the German Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Ansah, a nine-time German champion, competed at the World Championships in Tokyo last September, and the 2024 Paris Olympics. He did not qualify from his heats at either, but has enjoyed a breakout season in 2026 with personal bests over 60m (6.55s) and 200m (20.04s), the latter putting him inside the top 30 men for half a lap this year. In early June he became the first German man to break 10 seconds for 100m in wind-legal conditions with a 9.98s run in Bavaria.

He is not expected to compete in the relay finals this weekend — the men’s 4x100m and the mixed 4x100m — because any ban would mean the entire relay team losing their medals.

Swiss athlete Audrey Werro claimed her first senior international title by beating home favourite Keely Hodgkinson over 800m at the European Championships in Birmingham, England.

Werro, 22, won in a championship-record time of 1:54.81s, taking more than half a second off Olga Mineyeva’s championship record of 1:55.41s that had stood since 1982.

Hodgkinson, the defending European champion from 2024 and Olympic gold medallist, relinquished her continental crown, taking silver as she finished two tenths back on Werro (1:55.01s), while also going under Mineyeva’s 1982 record. Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands tied her national record for bronze (1:55.54s).

The win owed to perfectly-executed tactics by Werro, who beat Hodgkinson, 24, for only the second time in their ninth meeting. The Briton ran the opening bend hard from lane five, vying to be first at the break point to get onto the rail. Werro started in lane nine because she had been advanced to the final after tripping in the semi-final. By 200m, the Swiss woman had caught up to Hodgkinson and took a lead that she never gave up.

“I had a lot of emotion in me. I’m really happy with this medal,” Werro said in an interview on the track.

They hit 400m in 56.45s and a breakaway group of four emerged, with Jemma Reekie tagging onto the trio of Werro, Hodgkinson and Broeders-Bol, who were in a race together for the very first time. This is Broeders-Bol’s debut 800m season after a glittering 400m hurdles career.

Werro showed superior speed endurance on the second lap with near-perfect 100m splits of 14.6s, 14.6s, 14.3 and 14.8s.

“One mistake and you’re lucky to recover,” he said. Werro, having slowed midway through the second lap in her semi-final — which caused the field to bunch and led to her foot clipping another runner — clearly learned from that. Between 500 and 600m, she made sure that Hodgkinson did not close the gap.

The British athlete’s efforts to rally on the home straight and chase Werro down were met with roars by a sold-out crowd of 23,000 at Alexander Stadium. She ran more than three seconds quicker than she had in the same final two years ago, and while Hodgkinson did not get the medal she wanted, taking silver means she continues her streak of medalling at every international championships — this is her 12th career podium.

(Sona Maleterova/Getty Images)

“I’m sure we’ll have many battles ahead, I’ll settle for silver,” Hodgkinson said in an on-track interview. This is a first defeat in a senior European final for the Briton, who had won four golds from as many finals indoors and outdoors, and and was vying to become the first to defend the title at two consecutive championships.

Werro, meanwhile, caps the best two-lap season by a woman since the turn of the century. In her first full season at senior level she produced the third, fourth and ninth-quickest times ever this year. The standout of those was the win over Hodgkinson at the Stockholm Diamond League in June, when she ran 1:53.80s — the best performance since the world record was set in 1983.

Having first competed against one another four years ago, six of the 10 races between Hodgkinson and Werro have had them as the top two. Hodgkinson is up 8-2 on the head-to-head, and they may meet again on the Diamond League circuit this summer, before a likely showdown at the World Ultimate Championships in Budapest in mid-September.