You probably heard about Aaron Donald’s return to the Los Angeles Rams, but much more than that happened around the NFL this weekend. Donald grabbed headlines with his return to the Rams, but another former star returned to the team where he experienced his brightest days. Elsewhere, teams weren’t afraid to stash quarterbacks. In the final week of preseason action, a couple of contenders unlocked intriguing quarterbacks, including the reigning champions and their potential secret weapon behind Sam Darnold. Here are our takeaways from the weekend in the NFL: Eric D. Williams: Sean McVay\u2019s wait is finally over, as game wrecker Aaron Donald officially ended his two-year retirement by joining the Los Angeles Rams during the team\u2019s final roster cuts on Sunday. Donald signed a one-year deal that could be worth up to $30 million. Donald participated in individual drills on Sunday as he reacclimates to playing football. McVay said he has not decided if Donald will play in his team\u2019s first regular-season game in Australia against the San Francisco 49ers. “It\u2019s going to be a day at a time for us,” McVay told reporters on Sunday. “What does that mean for Australia? The first step was, \u2018Are you coming back?\u2019 If so, let\u2019s do that. Let\u2019s get you on the practice field. Let\u2019s get you acclimated to your teammates, to your coaches. And then we\u2019ll see what the ramp-up period looks like, whether he\u2019s available, or whether we think it\u2019s best to be able to play him in Australia.” For his part, Donald said he\u2019s thankful to be a part of this team that is a heavy favorite to win the Super Bowl. “This is a complete team with me here or without me here,” Donald said in his first press conference following his decision to unretire. “For me to even have an opportunity to be a part of this team, I take nothing for granted. It\u2019s a blessing to be retired from the game for two years and have the opportunity to come back and be a part of something special.” Ralph Vacchiano: It seemed like a favor for an old friend at first, the Giants giving Odell Beckham Jr. a chance to come to camp at age 33 after having not played football for two years. Instead, it turned into a Cinderella story. Beckham rose from the bottom of the New York Giants\u2019 roster and made the team that he never wanted to leave in the first place. He did it through hard work, proving he still had something left in his battered body, which he did through some highlight-reel moves at practice and decent play in the preseason (including a three-catch, 53-yard performance against the Jets on Friday night). Also helping his case was that the Giants lost slot WR Calvin Austin to a torn ACL last week, which probably opened up a spot for Beckham. Beckham is probably the fourth or fifth receiver on the roster, behind Malik Nabers, rookie Malachi Fields, veteran Darnell Mooney and maybe even Darius Slayton. It\u2019s hard to imagine he\u2019ll have much of a role when the regular season begins, but he\u2019s brought energy to the team and to the fanbase. And he insists his Cinderella story isn\u2019t over yet. Greg Auman: If you weren\u2019t aware of the extreme value placed on quarterbacks in the NFL, consider that four teams \u2013 the Eagles, Falcons, Steelers and Vikings \u2013 carried four quarterbacks on their initial 53-man roster, at least one more than normal. The most famous case of this was the 2000 Patriots, and it\u2019s unlikely that any of this year\u2019s rookie QB4s will go on to, say, win seven Super Bowls. But last year, the Browns carried four, waited a day, then got a fifth-round pick from the Raiders for Kenny Pickett. The Eagles have made several trades of their backups for draft picks, as well. Getting a quarterback \u2013 even a backup \u2013 on the cheap is a huge value for an NFL team, so even as a quick flip to a needy team is a good use of your 53rd spot if you instead cut a marginal veteran you know you can get back in a few days. (The Browns were close to keeping four quarterbacks, placing second-year QB Dillon Gabriel on injured reserve for a month while keeping three others.) Tennessee cut Will Levis loose, and he\u2019ll almost certainly be claimed on waivers, but the teams that miss out on him and others they can get for free might give up a future draft pick to add a QB4 who can be their QB3 or, in some cases, even QB2. Williams: When Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider selected Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe in the third round of the 2025 draft, the organization understood he needed seasoning to produce on an NFL stage. However, entering Seattle’s preseason finale, Milroe had not shown a command of Seattle\u2019s offense, with turnovers, pre-snap penalties and missed throws proving the norm when he was on the field. But on Friday night on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs, Milroe showed the potential the Seahawks saw in him in college. He finished 16-of-26 for 223 yards, with a touchdown pass to tight end Nick Vannett and no interceptions. He was sacked once and posted a 101.9 passer rating. Milroe looked comfortable in the pocket, completing passes to 10 different pass catchers and creating three chunk plays of at least 24 yards. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald wants Milroe to use his legs more because he understands the conflict a dynamic quarterback creates for a defense from his time in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson. With Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker III now with the Chiefs, the Seahawks are looking for ways to create more explosive plays. With his steady play against Kansas City, Milroe took a step in proving he\u2019s ready for a role as a gadget player in Seattle\u2019s offense. Steven Ruiz: I\u2019m not ready to buy the Chargers as title contenders \u2013 there are still too many holes on the roster \u2013 but I am sold on this offense being a highly entertaining watch now that Mike McDaniel is calling plays as the team\u2019s new offensive coordinator. The former Dolphins head coach may have lost control of his locker room in Miami, but his ability to draw up explosive plays never really wavered. Even with Tua Tagovailoa throwing ducks all over the field, Miami finished ninth in explosive play rate. Now, McDaniel is teaming up with one of the NFL\u2019s most gifted passers in Justin Herbert. That tandem gave us a sneak peek at what might be coming this past weekend with this 65-yard strike for a touchdown. Herbert\u2019s pass traveled 48.1 yards through the air, per Next Gen Stats. It was the longest throw any quarterback has ever made for a McDaniel-coached team. In Miami, McDaniel was accustomed to watching wide-open receivers slow down for Tagovailoa\u2019s looping downfield throws. Watching wide receiver Quentin Johnston run under Herbert\u2019s bomb while barely breaking stride must have been a jolt to his system. It was also the first time Herbert had ever attempted a throw of at least 45 air yards to a receiver with at least three yards of separation. These two are going to make each other\u2019s jobs a lot easier, and given their respective talents, that should produce a lot of fireworks for the Chargers offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You probably heard about Aaron Donald’s return to the Los Angeles Rams, but much more than that happened around the NFL this weekend. Donald grabbed headlines with his return to the Rams, but another former star returned to the team where he experienced his brightest days. Elsewhere, teams weren’t afraid to stash quarterbacks. In the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}