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Welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! 

If you get NFL alerts on your cell phone, you better be careful, because that thing might explode in your pocket with the amount of alerts it's going to get over the next 24 hours. Between now and the cut deadline on Tuesday, there will be more than 1,100 players getting released. 

In today's newsletter, we'll take a look at some of the biggest names who have already been dumped. Also, with the preseason now over, we'll be breaking down some of the biggest things we learned. 

As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. Let's get to the rundown. 

1. 10 things we learned from the NFL preseason

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The 2025 NFL preseason is officially in the books. There were a total of 49 games played, and since Cody Benjamin watched them all -- no one loves preseason football more than Cody -- we asked him to come up with a list of 10 things he learned during the preseason. 

Let's check out his top three: 

  • Shedeur Sanders isn't the answer for the Browns (yet). Talk about a rollercoaster of a preseason for the headline-making rookie. First the Colorado product dazzled NFL folks with his composure in a two-touchdown debut against the Panthers starters. Then he abruptly dropped out of action with an oblique injury. Finally he returned for the Browns' exhibition finale, only to be the most frazzled of Cleveland's four active quarterbacks, absorbing five sacks before coach Kevin Stefanski pulled him in favor of veteran Tyler Huntley for a game-winning drive. NOTE: Ryan Wilson wrote a great piece about Sanders. Wilson, who is our lead NFL draft insider, essentially pointed out that Sanders is exactly what we thought he would be -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing. You can check out Wilson's full take here. 
  • The Jets are probably going to run the ball A LOT. If you watched Justin Fields in his first summer wearing green, you saw what we've seen for most of the quarterback's tantalizing career: erratic passing and electric rushing. It stands to reason he'll keep leaning heavily upon his legs in New York given the pass catching options at his disposal, or lack thereof.
  • Matthew Stafford is a bigger 'IF' than expected. Yes, Stafford was a full participant at Los Angeles Rams practice to close the preseason, but it took the former Super Bowl champion all offseason to even reach that point. We wouldn't be stunned if he showed up in Week 1 and slung it like usual. But making it 17 weeks, plus another couple for a hopeful title bid, is a bigger ask. The Rams do have a proven backup plan in Jimmy Garoppolo, but he might now be their most underrated X factor.

If you want to see all 10 of our takeaways from the preseason, be sure to check out the full story here.  

2. Preseason grades for all 32 teams: Chiefs get an an 'A,' only one team fails out

Now that we've gone through 10 things we learned about the preseason, it's time to hand out some grades. Tyler Sullivan graded all 32 teams and surprisingly, only three of of them earned an 'A.' 

Let's check out the two highest grades that he handed out and the two lowest: 

TWO HIGHEST GRADES

  • Chiefs: A. The most underrated story in the NFL right now is that the Kansas City Chiefs have totally revamped the left side of the offensive line. First-round rookie Josh Simmons has blossomed into a set-and-forget piece at left tackle, and 2024 second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia has transitioned from tackle to left guard splendidly.
  • Giants: A. It's been a while since we were able to say this, but it must feel good to be a New York Giants fan right now. Why? Because it looks like the franchise hit home runs with both of its first-round draft picks. While Abdul Carter was considered to be a Day 1 contributor off the edge and has backed that up this summer, what has turned heads has been the performance from former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart. The 25th overall pick looked the part of a future franchise quarterback, showing command in the pocket while completing 32 of his 47 passes for 372 yards and three passing touchdowns over three games.

TWO LOWEST GRADES

  • Bengals: D. The 'D' certainly doesn't stand for defense because this is still a massive problem for Cincinnati. Unlike in years past, the Bengals decided to play their starters more in the preseason. To little surprise, Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and the rest of the offense look dynamite. But that wasn't their problem last year. Defensively, the Bengals are showing the same warts that contributed to them being on the outside looking in on the playoff picture.
  • Saints: F. The biggest question for the Saints heading into the preseason was who'd emerge as QB1. Well, all three exhibitions have been played, and no quarterback has made it abundantly clear for Kellen Moore to make an easy call. ... It's hard to evaluate much else with the most important situation not only in flux, but drastically limited due to what they currently have on the depth chart.

If you want to check out the grades for the other 28 teams -- or if you just want to know who got the other 'A' -- you can check out Sullivan's full story here. 

3. Giant surprise: Giants pull off rare preseason feat that usually means playoffs 

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Although the preseason doesn't really serve as a good predictor for the regular season, there has been one stat that has somehow translated to regular-season success and that's point differential. 

The Giants outscored their three opponents by a total of 60 points during the preseason, and the reason that's notable is because over the past 16 years, a point differential of 60 seems to be the magic number when trying to figure out if a team's preseason success will translate to the regular season.  

The Giants are the eighth team since 2009 to finish a preseason with a point differential of +60 or more. Here's how the seven previous teams have fared: 

  • Six of them made the playoffs
  • Two of them won the Super Bowl (2009 Saints and 2013 Seahawks)
  • The seven teams combined to average 11.1 wins per season

If history holds, that means the Giants will likely be headed to at least the playoffs. Of course, it won't be easy, the Giants do have the toughest strength of schedule in the NFL this year. If you want the full story on why the Giants could be a dark horse playoff contender due to their preseason success, I broke it down here. 

4. NFL cut day is almost here: Notable names who have already been released

Things are going to get kind of crazy in the NFL over the next 24 hours, and that's because tomorrow is cut day. Between now and 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, all 32 teams have to trim their roster down from 90 players to 53.

Some teams have already started the process of making their cuts, so we're going to take a look at few of the notable names who have already been let go: 

If you want to keep tabs on every player who has been cut so far, you can do that by following our cuts tracker here. We've also got a live blog going so we can keep track of cuts as they happen, and you can check that out here. 

5. Eagles make three trades in one day

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The Eagles will definitely be one team you want to keep an eye on over the next 24 hours. Howie Roseman is always looking to make a deal, and he got especially busy over the weekend by making THREE TRADES IN ONE DAY. All of that action came on Sunday. 

Let's check out the three deals that Philly made:  

EAGLES-PACKERS

If you want to win a Super Bowl, then adding Kinnard is the way to go. The offensive lineman has been in the NFL for three seasons, and he's won a Super Bowl in EACH of those seasons. That's right, he already has three Super Bowl rings. Kinnard is one of just two players in NFL history who has won three Super Bowls in a row (Ken Norton Jr. is the other). We've got more details on the Kennard deal here. 

EAGLES-JAGUARS

Johnson spent the past two seasons with the Eagles (2023-24), and after losing him to Jacksonville in free agency this year, the Eagles clearly decided they wanted him back. If you want to read more about this trade, you can do that here. 

EAGLES-VIKINGS

  • Eagles get: QB Sam Howell, 2026 sixth-round pick
  • Vikings get: 2026 fifth-round pick, 2027 seventh-round pick

Going into the weekend, the Eagles had a huge question mark at backup quarterback. Tanner McKee, the current QB2, suffered a fractured thumb during the preseason, and it's unclear when he'll back on the field. The Eagles clearly wanted another experienced QB on the roster heading into Week 1, so they made a trade for Howell. With Howell out of Minnesota, that left the Vikings in need of a quarterback, so they went out and signed ... well, we'll answer that question in the next section. 

6. Extra points: Terry McLaurin drama finally over in Washington

It was a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. 

  • Commanders reach three-year deal with McLaurin. The 29-year-old receiver had been sitting out of training camp as he looked for a new deal, but that hold-in is now over. CBS Sports lead NFL Insider Jonathan Jones has reported that McLaurin will be getting a three-year extension. The new contract is worth a total of $96 million, which means McLaurin will be making an average of $32 million per year. That's a huge step up from the $15.5 million he was scheduled to make in 2025 under the final year of his old contract. We've got the full details on McLaurin's deal here.
  • Carson Wentz is headed to Minnesota. The Vikings have a new backup quarterback after signing Carson Wentz on Sunday. Sam Howell had been serving as the backup QB, but Kevin O'Connell clearly wasn't comfortable with giving him the backup job. Howell got traded to Philadelphia and was quickly replaced by Wentz, who will now sit behind J.J. McCarthy. If you want the details on both the Howell trade and the Wentz signing, we've got that here. 
  • Saints still haven't made a QB decision. The Saints still haven't named their starting QB even though they play their opener in just 13 days. Head coach Kellen Moore has said the decision will come at some point this week, so Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough will both have to wait a few more days to find out if they won the job. We broke down the Saints QB situation, and you can check that out here. 
  • Steelers first-round pick out 4 to 6 weeks. Derrick Harmon, who injured his knee in Pittsburgh's final preseason game, will miss at least a month due to the injury. If Harmon only misses four weeks, he could potentially be back on the field for Pittsburgh's Week 4 game in Ireland against the Vikings, but with the Steelers having a Week 5 bye, it wouldn't be surprising if they hold him out until Week 6. You can read more about his injury here. 
  • Jets and Chiefs make a trade: Derrick Nnadi is returning to Kansas City. The defensive tackle spent his first seven seasons with the Chiefs before signing with the Jets this year. However, he won't end up ever playing a down for the Jets because New York just traded him back to Kansas City. The Chiefs are getting Nnadi and a conditional 2027 seventh-round draft pick while the Jets will be getting a conditional 2027 sixth-round selection in the deal.