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I love watching training camp practices.
They are open to the media for about a month (during the season, it’s just 20 minutes), and you really can glean a lot about players and coaches, seeing them up close for two hours, take a lot of mental notes.
It helps with frame of reference moving forward when writing about players and coaches.
But I am at the point where I’m looking forward to camp wrapping up next week and practices being closed again (except for the 20 minutes, which is mainly stretching).
Why?
Simple.
Media QB stats in camp.
Reckless and absurd.
I don’t do them, but everywhere you turn there are narratives formed based on this nonsense.
And so many “completions” and “incompletitions” are devoid of context.
There are no real sacks because there is no tackling, and you are not even supposed to touch the QB (that is why they were red jerseys), let alone sack him. Kirk Cousins and Maxx Crosby got into a scrum last week after the QB was pissed that the defensive end touched his arm as he was throwing.
So there are plays that go beyond their likely life expectancy, because the pass rusher pulls up.
Granted, the “media stat crew” will call some plays “sacks” and not include those plays in their passing stats, but even those plays being called “sacks” is misleading.
How often do we see pass rushers get a near a QB, but don’t secure the sack, and the QB keeps the play alive by moving around in the pocket, or rolling out, and then throwing a pass.
A lot of pass rushers can get back there, but are too stiff to actually finish the deal? We see that a lot.
So I’m not even sure some of the plays the “media stat crew” claims the QB was sacked would end up being sacks in real football.
And in camp, some incompletions are not the QB’s fault, but occur perhaps due to a young receivers running the wrong route.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that rookie Omar Cooper was rushed into the starting lineup after seeing a couple of plays where he needed help from teammates on where to line up. This is not an attack on very smart Cooper. His issues lining up are related to him being a rookie in his first camp, not his intelligence. It looks like they have perhaps pulled back a little on Cooper’s starting reps and are having Isaiah Williams start in the slot more in practice, with Cooper still playing a lot.
Yesterday, we wrote about a play where Geno Smith threw a pass down the right seam on Wednesday, but the intended receiver, Adanoi Mitchell, cut the route off and ran to the right sideline.
So you are going to blame Smith for this without knowing the play call, and whether Mitchell ran the wrong route?
This is the time of year for teaching, learning, experimenting, improving technique, and getting on the same page with your teammates, not media stats, which are often devoid of context.
It’s like Broadway dress rehearsals before the show opens.
I saw a story today quoting an NFL analyst saying the Jets should start Cade Klubnik based on how he’s looked this summer, and this is from somebody who has not seen him in camp. Maybe they saw the first preseason game.
Klubnik is not ready to start.
He has a lot of potential, but often his plays are one-read and run stuff. He needs to work on seeing the field better, going through his progressions more, and calming his feet down in the pocket.
So while as much as I love watching two-hour training camp practices, and thank the league and teams for making them open to the media, I’m also looking forward to them ending as well.
Anything that will make the QB media practice stats end, I’m all for.
August 20, 2026
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Friday.
August 20, 2026
