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Good morning! I miss Joey Votto already.
There may be no more compelling storyline this NFL season than the fate of its rookie QB class. The top two picks — the Bears’ Caleb Williams and Commanders’ Jayden Daniels — are both Heisman winners and hold their teams’ futures in their young hands. The latter could also be said of New England’s Drake Maye and Denver’s Bo Nix. In an alternate timeline, Minnesota’s injured J.J. McCarthy is in that camp, too.
The closest recent comparison is 2020: Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert went in the top six picks. They have since been franchise linchpins. Jordan Love (drafted at No. 23) and Jalen Hurts (No. 51) grew into those roles, too.
Our next NFL preview Pulse Poll focuses squarely on said pressure: Which rookie is going to have the best year? I agonized over how to evaluate this. Each QB plays on a different team with different schemes and expectations. How can we say who was actually best?
The Pulse braintrust landed on QBR, ESPN’s composite QB performance rating. For example, here are last year’s top four QBR guys:
Tracks for me. So we arrive at the fully formed poll question: Which rookie QB will end the year with the best QBR? Options:
Nix gets a slot there because the Broncos announced him as their starter yesterday. New England has not decided on its starter just yet, so Maye — like Michael Penix Jr. and Spencer Rattler — falls into Other.
Make your voice heard here. We’ll run the results tomorrow.
Last night was great for milestones. We had three big ones:
Moving on:
More Japanese players in MLB?
Evan Drellich has a fascinating piece up this morning on the fight of players in Nippon Professional Baseball — Japan’s top league — to become free agents earlier in their careers, which would clear the way for many of Japan’s top stars to reach MLB sooner than ever before. Right now, they must either wait nine years to leave or be posted for bidding, which can become prohibitively expensive for MLB clubs. Imagine if Shohei Ohtani had made it to the States earlier. We’ll have more on this later in the week.
Votto retires
Former Reds first baseman Joey Votto, 40, officially retired yesterday after a 17-year major-league career. Votto surely has a place in the Hall of Fame, and he leaves as one of the most distinct characters baseball has seen in a long time. He may also be the most disciplined hitter in the history of the game. We’ll have many more stories in the coming days about his goodbye. C. Trent Rosecrans, surely the most authoritative Votto scribe on the planet, wrote that Votto was everything baseball needed.
NASCAR denies Dillon again
Remember when Austin Dillon rammed his way through Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to win that race two weeks ago? The victory earned him a spot in the playoffs, but NASCAR decided to strip his automatic playoff berth, and yesterday denied his appeal for reinstatement into the postseason. Dillon has one last chance to win an appeal on the matter, though.
More news
MLB: Astros at Orioles
7:08 p.m. ET on Fox
Baltimore has a better record here, but Houston has sizzled since an awful start to the season. I’m most interested in a vibe check on the O’s, who have been just as elite as last season without any of the fanfare.
NFL: Colts vs. Bengals
8 p.m. on Prime Video
Gloriously, we have actual drama in a third preseason game. While most of the league rests its starters, Indianapolis will play its first-team offense into the second quarter — including, most importantly, QB Anthony Richardson, who struggled against Cincinnati’s defense in joint practices. There was even trash talk.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Want to cry today? Read Jon Krawczynski’s story about Naz Reid and 7-year-old Cayden Addison, who’s struggled with cancer since he was 3. Reid, a fan favorite in Minnesota, lost his mentor to cancer — and now wants to help people like Cayden get the support they need. Make time for this today.
John Hollinger listed his under-the-radar best moves of the NBA offseason. Always read John.
Dane Brugler returns with his initial top 50 prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft. Get ready for more of this.
I missed this earlier in the week, but Jeremy Rutherford’s deeply reported story on how St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong is upending NHL norms — and winning — was really interesting.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Brendan Kuty’s story on Brett Gardner’s absence at the Yankees’ upcoming 2009 World Series celebration. Read it if you missed it.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Y’all are still all about Travis Kelce’s swift summer.
Top podcast in The Athletic network: The Athletic Football Show did its annual win pool, with Robert Mays and new co-host Derrik Klassen (who’s been great) picking seven teams each. I always learn something from that show.
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(Top photo: Perry Knotts / Getty Images)
