End-of-Preseason Double Bass Drum Solo!!!

It's impossible to comment on all of the trades, signings, cuts, exempt-list additions, end-of-the-preseason revelations and other NFL news coming out of this weekend, especially since players will still be getting released/signed/traded/suspended/placed on IR as you read this. Still, Walkthrough is determined to cover as much ground as possible.

But first ...

Aaron Donald is Back!

Gee willikers, what a surprise.

The DVOA projections tell me that the Seahawks, not the Rams, are still the Super Bowl favorites. The sportsbooks tell me that the Rams are the favorites, with a +500 moneyline. Sorry, but I am with the sportsbooks on this one.

Let's talk about topics we haven't been discussing since June.

One of the following things is not like the other.

Friend-of-the-Zone Michael David Smith published a list of the 12 starting quarterbacks who did not play a single snap this preseason at Pro Football Talk. Here’s the list:

• Seahawks: Sam Darnold
• Patriots: Drake Maye
• Cowboys: Dak Prescott
• Ravens: Lamar Jackson
• Steelers: Aaron Rodgers
• Colts: Daniel Jones
• Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence
• Chiefs: Patrick Mahomes
• Eagles: Jalen Hurts
• Lions: Jared Goff
• Saints: Tyler Shough
• Rams: Matthew Stafford

Five of these quarterbacks have Super Bowl rings as starters. Four have won at least one MVP award; another was the runner-up in 2025. Three are former first-overall picks who have been their teams’ unquestioned starters for years. Prescott has been a starter for a decade, led his team to the playoffs multiple times and was the MVP runner-up in 2023. Jones is recovering from an Achilles injury, and (for all his flaws) has started 82 NFL games. 

And then there’s Tyler Shough, with nine career starts and 327 regular-season NFL passes for a last-place team under his belt.

Kellen Moore did not play any of his starters in the preseason. That’s a yellow flag, because Saints starters aren’t exactly Rams starters: just about everyone south of Chris Olave on the team’s cast list should either still be competing for a job or using a dress rehearsal to work the bugs out of matters like pre-snap communication. A 6-11 team should not have 22 firmly-established starters, no matter how many games that team won in December.

Shough, in particular, does not belong in the doesn’t-need-the-work category. I always get a little suspicious when a second-year quarterback with a handful of starts suddenly receives not just an uncontested starting job but Too Precious for Preseason status. It always looks like the coaching staff is talking itself into the youngster instead of further preparing or challenging him.

J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix attempted 17 and 16 passes in the 2025 preseason. Both of them were shut down after the first preseason game last year. In retrospect, doesn’t it seem like both the Vikings and Falcons were performing a little spin-and-self-esteem control? He had some early success. Let’s not push things. Drake Maye, also a second-year quarterback starter last year, participated in all three of the 2025 Patriots preseason games. Bo Nix played in two 2025 preseason games, playing into the second quarter of the third one.

Jaxson Dart, a second-year starter like Shough, played just one eventful series this preseason: a touchdown, two big wallops, a trip to the concussion tent after one of those wallops, a complaint about the trip to the concussion tent after the game. John Harbaugh must have found the preseason cameo informative, if nothing else.

Cam Ward went 13-of-24 for 126 yards in two games against 49ers and Seahawks backups. Not great. But at least the Titans know what to work on.

Shough apparently played well – and talked "a little crap” – in joint practices against the Cowboys. He threw multiple touchdown practices in one session, per this report, though the video evidence shows that several of them came in red zone or goal-to-go drills. Joint practices are very useful for players and coaches, but I haven’t seen enough of Shough to be convinced of his development based off of practice-field stats and videos.

Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield, Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young and Nix all played at least one series this preseason. Mahomes probably would have as well, if he were not still returning from an ACL tear, because Andy Reid prefers to play his starters a bit. Different coaches take different preseason approaches with their established quarterbacks. The issue here is that Shough has no business being on the established quarterbacks list. 

A Shough series or two, good or bad, would not have changed my mind about him. It would, however, have made me a little more comfortable with the Saints’ self-evaluation, and with Moore’s reasoning.

Got it bad. Got it bad. Got it bad. Packers are Hot for Jonnu

Jonnu Smith is like a double-bass drum pedal for overstimulated offensive coordinators.

Hard rock and heavy metal bands of the mid-to-late 20th century often featured double-bass drum kits. Here’s Alex Van Halen performing on one, for example:

The double bass sounds great on the intro for Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher,” on some speed metal classics of the 1980's and … well, that’s about it. Double bass drums generally sound noisy and sloppy, especially in the hands (feet) of your typical garage band drummer. Fortunately, most garage band drummers either cannot afford a double-bass kit or have no interest in lugging two bass drums to gigs. Unfortunately, there are affordable pedals that mimic the effect of a double bass: stomp on them a little harder than usual, and the beater strikes the drumhead twice in rapid succession.

Drummers who purchase double-bass drum pedals quickly become addicted to them. Before you know it, they are finding reasons to add a double-bass THUMP-THUMP to “Brown Eyed Girl” or “Wonderful Tonight.” Rock standards that should have a simple, steady 4/4 beat develop a stammering arrhythmia that makes listeners evacuate the dance floor.

Drummers are also typically excitable individuals, which means they stomp their pedals harder as a set goes on, which means inadvertent, ill-timed THUMP-THUMPS.

I played bass guitar in a band in the 1990s whose drummer got hold of a double-bass pedal and began THUMP-THUMPING at every opportunity: ballads, waltzes, when the singer tried to tell the audience between songs that someone left their F-250 headlights on in the parking lot, and so forth. I would make mistakes while trying to guess when the second THUMP would arrive. We would sometimes lose the beats of the simplest classic rock standards.

One day, the pedal disappeared while we were breaking down. Our keyboard player had quietly tossed it in a Dumpster. I think he also threw the drummer's jacket away to make it look like a theft. Details are hazy.

Anyway ...

Jonnu Smith was Arthur Smith’s double-bass pedal for the Titans and Falcons, then for the 2025 Steelers. Mike McDaniel added Jonnu to his kit for the 2024 Dolphins.

Both Smith and McDaniel are totally the types of guys who would assemble a double-bass kit, with windchimes and a gong, if they had become drummers instead of coaches. Both considered Jonnu some sort of ultra-versatile superweapon. Arthur Smith would line him up in the backfield and design option passes for him to throw. McDaniel loved scheming up 25-foot Tua Tagovailoa tosses to Jonnu in the short middle of the field after fake handoffs to players the opposing defense was actually worried about. Last year, Smith was part of Aaron Rodgers’ Secret Service detail, an extra blocker who could also catch zero-air-yard, 0.05-second time-to-throw passes.

The more Arthur Smith and McDaniel used Jonnu Smith, the worse their offenses looked. If Jonnu is getting 3-to-7 targets in a game, it’s a sign that the offense is overengineered and the coordinator is trying too hard to be clever.

The Packers signed Jonnu Smith late last week. Smith is no threat to starter Tucker Kraft, who is still reportedly on track to return from last season's ACL injury in Week 1. He is instead likely to replace Luke Musgrave, who has been on the PUP list throughout the summer with a neck injury.

Musgrave, who was taken one round ahead of Kraft in the 2023 draft, has been oft-injured vaporware for years. When Kraft tore his ACL late last year, Musgrave got passed over in favor of Josh Whyle and Drake Dabney. 

Jonnu’s a worthy replacement for Musgrave as a package TE3 who tries to catch the defense in a very occasional mismatch. But if you see Jonnu motioning across the formation 20 times per game or lining up in the backfield, be very afraid. Because if Matt LaFleur grows too enamored with his new "versatile playmaker," there’s a chance that the Packers offense could end up looking and sounding like this:

A Commanders Confidence Crisis

Preseason results are meaningless. But a 41-3 loss is bound to leave a mark.

The Ravens defeated the Commanders 41-3 on Friday night in backups-on-backups action. The Ravens backups, led by Snoop Huntley (for one series) and UDFA Joe Fagnano (until the silly strings took over) looked like a bunch of professionals who had received a little coaching. The Commanders, led by UDFA Athan Kaliakmanis until Dan Quinn inserted third-year clipboard jockey Sam Hartman in a failed effort to preserve some shred of dignity, left receivers uncovered, committed penalties, fumbled, couldn’t field a kickoff cleanly, blew blocks, missed field goals (a 62-yarder, but still) and generally played like a bunch of guys who should start trying to get substitute teacher certification.