RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Hello football friends, and welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
The countdown is officially on. As of today, we're just 10 days away from the first game of the NFL preseason . That comes Aug. 6 when the Cardinals face the Panthers in the Hall of Fame Game, and I have to say, this is easily the most excited I've ever been for a Cardinals-Panthers game. Sure, these two teams met in the 2015 NFC Championship Game, but that was a blowout, and it wasn't played in Canton, Ohio.
Between now and the Hall of Fame Game, there's going to be plenty of action on the field. By this time tomorrow, all 32 teams will have reported for training camp, and at that point, there will be so much football news coming out that your head will probably start to spin just trying to keep track of it. During the early days of training camp, there always seems to be some unexpected news, and that happened over the weekend with Kyle Shanahan. We're going to start today with the details on his situation.
Kyle Shanahan won't be fulfilling his normal duties during training camp after suffering several serious injuries in a car crash earlier this month. The crash happened July 14, but the 49ers kept the situation under wraps until July 25, when they announced it just before the start of training camp.
Shanahan suffered multiple injuries. The 49ers coach broke his nose, his hand and three ribs, according to ESPN . Shanahan, who also suffered a serious concussion in the crash, needed more than 40 stitches on his face. The crash happened just after 6 p.m. PT on July 14 in Palo Alto, California, just a few miles from where Shanahan lives. Palo Alto Lt. Nicholas Martinez said drugs and alcohol were not factors in the crash.
49ers will put several assistant coaches in charge. With Shanahan sidelined for now, the 49ers announced that assistant head coach Chris Foerster will serve as the team's de facto head coach alongside offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak and defensive coordinator Raheem Morris. Foerster got to run his first practice Sunday, and he sounded excited about the opportunity.
"I'm fired up," Foerster said. "Not from the standpoint of Kyle's down, this is my big chance. No, it's just like, I love the opportunity to help. I think what I learned a long, long time ago, I believe you serve leadership. You help people by serving leadership as anybody I can help."
There's no timeline for Shanahan's return. The 46-year-old Shanahan did attend the 49ers' first training camp practice Sunday, but he was mostly an onlooker. The team isn't in any rush to get him back on the field and will let doctors determine when he's ready to return, according to general manager John Lynch.
"Kyle basically is going to be like in the protocol," Lynch said. "And we're going to let the doctors dictate how he comes back, when he comes back."
Shanahan should be back for Week 1. The 49ers open the season against the Rams in Australia, and the team doesn't expect him to miss the game.
"That's not what we're anticipating," Lynch said. "That's not what I've heard from the doctors. But just like we talked about with players, the timeline kind of takes care of itself. He's got to meet certain markers. But I think the expectation is that long before that he'll be better."
Basically, the 49ers think Shanahan will be back by then, but there's no guarantee.
If you want all the details on the Shanahan situation, we've got that here .
One thing that makes the NFL so entertaining every year is that it's one of the most unpredictable sports on the planet, and nothing proves that more than the league's ability to produce at least one team every season that goes from worst to first.
Last year, we saw two teams pull off that feat. After finishing in last place in 2024, the Patriots bounced back by winning the AFC East and making it to the Super Bowl . The Bears also went from worst to first.
Since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002, there have been 31 instances of a team going from worst to first, an average of 1.29 teams per year over that 24-season span. Basically, NFL history says at least one team will pull it off this year.
1. Saints 2. Lions 3. Giants 4. Jets 5. Titans 6. Browns 7. Raiders 8. Cardinals
If you feel like yelling at me on Twitter about how bad the rankings are, feel free to do so here .
Detroit is actually favored to win the NFC North, but I still think the Saints have a better shot of winning their division than the Lions have of winning theirs.
If you're wondering how I came up with these rankings, I've got the full explanation here .
As of today, only six teams have their full roster in training camp, and five of them are in the NFC (Cardinals, Panthers, 49ers, Rams and Seahawks ), so we thought it would be the perfect time to reveal some of the biggest training camp storylines in the conference.
Garrett Podell came up with one key storyline for each of the NFC's 16 teams. Let's check out what he had to say about three of them:
If you want to check out the rest of our NFC storylines, we've got them here .
Earlier this month, we ranked the NFL's best receiving duos , and since we don't want the running backs to feel left out, we decided to rank the best RB duos, too.
Jared Dubin was in charge of ranking the receiving duos, and he did such a good job that we decided to put him in charge of the running backs as well.
Dubin ranked the top 10 duos, and we've got his full list here .
If you have a good backup QB on your roster, it can save your season. The 2017 Eagles will always be the best proof of that. After Carson Wentz went down with a torn ACL late in the season, Nick Foles stepped in and led the team on an improbable Super Bowl run.
The reason you need a good backup is because QB injuries happen all the time in the NFL. Just last year, we saw Joe Burrow , Lamar Jackson , Patrick Mahomes , Brock Purdy and Jayden Daniels all miss time due to injury.
Having a good backup QB can make all the...
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