10 Things I Learned at NFL Training Camps, Including the Story Behind DK Metcalf’s Diamond-Studded Fangs

Plus, why it’s hard to have more fun than Pete Carroll, the Chargers are loaded again, Mike McCarthy’s offense is complicated and Derek Carr finally has a dominant defense.

As a reporter, you come to dislike clichés. But I caught myself saying one after staring at the lake next to the Seahawks’ training camp site.

I told myself that life was good after realizing I’m in Renton, Wash., many miles away from home, waiting for an interview with Seahawks coach Pete Carroll during my first NFL training camp tour. Nine teams, five states—and thousands of stories to get to this point.

Sometimes you gotta stop and smell the roses. O.K., enough with the clichés.

I learned plenty about the nine teams I visited this summer and had a blast doing it. Maybe more fun than Carroll has coaching the Seahawks, but more on that later.

Here are 10 things I learned on my first NFL camp tour (in order of my travel stops).

Raiders fans are giving GM Dave Ziegler ideas on how to sign Jacobs to a new deal :: Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports

1) Raiders optimistic about Jacobs reporting before Week 1

Raiders coach Josh McDaniels saying “when he’s back” and not “if” when I asked him for an update on Josh Jacobs’s contract holdout was, at least to me, a strong indicator that the team expects him to report before Week 1 of the regular season.

GM Dave Ziegler also expects the Pro Bowl running back to return, telling a fan last week that he’ll get Jacobs to report to the team. The fan even provided a resolution for the contract dispute, suggesting to Ziegler to offer Jacobs between $11 million and $12 million for the year and “put some incentives in there.”

The Chargers got Austin Ekeler to pull his trade request after the team added $1.75 million in reachable incentives for 2023. Also, the Giants got Saquon Barkley to sign his one-year $10.091 million franchise tender by giving him a $2 million up-front signing bonus and including another $1 million in incentives.

Going off these two deals, the Raiders fan might be onto something with his contract suggestions for Jacobs. Regardless of what the financial numbers will be, the Raiders are optimistic about Jacobs signing his franchise tag in the near future.

2) Cardinals keeping options open with first-round picks

I chose a good day to visit Cardinals training camp because GM Monti Ossenfort was available to the local media. I assumed Ossenfort would field a few questions about whether Kyler Murray would play this season—he’s working his way back from the torn ACL he sustained in December.

But I didn’t expect Ossenfort to be asked in August what he’ll do with his two first-round picks for next year’s draft. (He gained an extra first-rounder from Houston after trading this year’s No. 3 pick, which the Texans used on edge rusher Will Anderson Jr.)

If the Cardinals and Texans struggle this season, such as many pundits are expecting, the team could have two high first-round picks in a potentially loaded draft class for quarterbacks, which might include USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye. This scenario, obviously, would put Murray’s future in Arizona in limbo, especially because Ossenfort didn’t draft Murray and didn’t sign him to the lucrative contract extension.

But I thought Ossenfort played it well with the draft questions, saying the team always evaluates every position, including quarterback. He also said every player has something to prove after being asked whether Murray has to prove himself to the first-year GM and new coach Jonathan Gannon.

3) Cowboys banking on loaded defense to carry them early

Prescott is trying to adapt to a new offensive system and play-calling under Mike McCarthy :: Jayne Kamin/Oncea/USA TODAY Sports

Quarterback Dak Prescott admitted Mike McCarthy’s offensive scheme and play-calling have been drastically different from what former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore ran in Dallas the past four seasons.

With many changes, Prescott and the Cowboys’ offense could potentially struggle the first half of the season, but they can probably afford to go through an adjustment phase thanks to a loaded defense with plenty of depth at edge rusher (Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence) and playmakers in the secondary (Trevon Diggs, Stephon Gilmore).

Perhaps the drastic changes offensively could backfire, but at this point, it might be worth the gamble if McCarthy truly believes a balanced attack will pay off come December and January. The Cowboys haven’t gotten past the divisional round of the postseason in three decades. Change might be good for Prescott.

4) Chargers loaded again, but it’s now or never with core group

I’ve made three stops to Chargers training camp, and each time I have to remind myself not to get carried away about how much talent they have across their roster. Yes, the Chargers are loaded, but what else is new?

It’s become somewhat of an annual tradition for football pundits to tab the Chargers as the sleeper pick to go all the way because of their talented roster. But they’ve also come up short—for example, the 27–0 wild-card collapse in 2022 to Jacksonville, and the Week 18 heartbreaker against the Raiders to miss the postseason in ’21. And this goes back to the days of Philip Rivers, who went through multiple core groups during his stint with the Chargers.

For Justin Herbert, this might be the beginning of the end for his first Super Bowl window with the Chargers. After signing a massive five-year contract extension, he’ll get many opportunities in L.A., but the same can’t be said about the other veteran stars. Will veterans such as Keenan Allen, Khalil Mack and Ekeler still be around next year? It’s now or never for this core group to make a deep postseason run and be more than just hype.

5) Rams could make noise with promising rookie class

My MMQB coworker Conor Orr is leading the charge for the Rams to be surprisingly good this year. It’s tough for me to agree with so much inexperience on L.A.’s roster, but I’m slightly changing my tune due to the early positive results the Rams have gotten from their 2023 draft class this summer.

I’m not saying they’ll be a playoff team—they have a brutal schedule to start the season, facing the Seahawks, 49ers, Bengals and Eagles in four of the first five games—but they could be a pesky squad that hovers around eight wins.

Wide receiver Puka Nacua, a fifth-round pick, seems to be the next Robert Woods for the Rams. Betting on cornerback Trevius Tomlinson’s competitive side and accolades at TCU, and overlooking his 5'9", 180-pound frame, could quickly pay off with the way the sixth-round pick has played.

Third-round picks Byron Young (edge rusher) and Kobie Turner (defensive tackle) are starting to find their footing and will likely be counted on to start. Second-round pick Steve Avila has already earned a starting guard spot and could help the offensive line with a bounce-back season.

If the Rams protect Matthew Stafford in the opening month of the season, I might be asking Orr to make room on the L.A. bandwagon.

6) 49ers in tough position with Trey Lance

49ers fans weren’t happy about my training camp report because I wrote that third-year quarterback Trey Lance struggled during my one-day visit. For some reason, many took it as my saying Lance has struggled throughout camp.

I haven’t been there every day, but I’ve been paying attention to coach Kyle Shanahan’s interviews. It wasn’t that long ago that he compared Sam Darnold to Hall of Fame QB Steve Young. That, to me, sounded like Shanahan anticipating Darnold to be the backup to Brock Purdy, who didn’t have to compete for his starting job.

And I get why this is a touchy subject for 49ers fans. The organization gave up multiple first-round picks to the Dolphins, trading up to No. 3 to select Lance in the 2021 draft. Lance also hasn’t gotten a fair shake to prove himself on the field. But this Super Bowl–ready team can’t afford to wait for a quarterback to develop. Purdy proved last season he’s ready to start, and now he has playoff experience.

Who knows whether the 49ers are looking to trade Lance, but it doesn’t hurt to have him develop without being rushed. Opportunities always come up during the regular season; just ask Purdy, the 2022 seventh-round pick from Iowa State.

7) Seahawks coach Pete Carroll not thinking about retirement

Carroll is having too much fun to entertain retiring, despite being 71 years old :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

I watched multiple times the glorious QB highlight reel the Seahawks made for the 71-year-old Carroll, who was shown throwing dimes to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and even had a few scramble runs to throw off the defense. Seriously, it might be my favorite video of the year, and the season hasn’t even started.

But this was more evidence that Carroll has no plans to retire anytime soon.

He told me he’s having too much fun and enjoys the team culture in Seattle after I asked him what makes him keep going as a coach. After our interview, I caught Carroll throwing the football to a few youngsters on the practice field.

“You watched today; you can see what’s going on,” Carroll says. “It’s like this every day out here. As long as we can keep it going like that, it feels like that, we put a good club out there … I don’t know, just keep going. I’m not even thinking about what’s next. Just tomorrow.”

8) Broncos to lean on receivers Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy

The Broncos are going to need a lot more than Sean Payton’s no-nonsense attitude for this team to recover from its dismal 2022 season. That was clear from the sloppy performance Russell Wilson and his first-team offense had in the preseason opener against the Cardinals.

But they at least have two standout wide receivers to lean on during this transition season with Payton leading the charge. Sutton has been dominating in training camp and has received comparisons to Michael Thomas, who developed into an All-Pro under Payton’s guidance in New Orleans.

And this might finally be the year that Jeudy puts it all together. Jeudy had a few impressive connections with Wilson during my stop in Colorado.

9) Saints’ standout defense should benefit Derek Carr

Watching a healthy Marshon Lattimore make plays against the Chargers during a joint practice last week made me remember how good the Saints’ defense has been the past few seasons under coach Dennis Allen.

If this veteran-filled defense with Lattimore, Cameron Jordan, Tyrann Mathieu and Demario Davis delivers another standout season, this could be very beneficial for Carr, especially during the feel-out phase of his first season in New Orleans.

Carr never had a dominant defense to lean on during his time with the Raiders, which made his mistakes more costly for the team. Carr will play a big role in how far the Saints go in 2023, but he won’t have to do the heavy lifting by himself in New Orleans.

10) The story behind Metcalf’s diamond-studded fangs

Metcalf got creative with his grill after learning that his dentist also worked on Odell Beckham Jr.’s teeth :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

This is somewhat of a bonus “what I learned” nugget because I visited nine teams and needed to get 10 items. So, let’s have fun with this last one.

After I greeted Metcalf in Seattle, I caught myself staring at his diamond-studded fangs over two of his teeth. Of course, I had to ask more about it.

Metcalf said he decided to get creative with his grill after learning that his dentist also worked on Odell Beckham Jr.’s teeth. And being the competitor that he is, Metcalf wanted something more stylish to raise the bar for best diamond grill in the NFL.

“I want mine to look like fangs,” Metcalf recalled telling his dentist.

Mission accomplished.