By Jenna West, Kevin Fishbain and Ben Standig

Saturday’s preseason action gave NFL fans their first glimpse of quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, the Nos. 1 and 2 picks of this year’s draft, and the rookies delivered.

The Buffalo Bills hosted the Chicago Bears, who played Williams for the entire first quarter. He delivered a throw late in the quarter that made everyone’s eyes go wide when Williams rolled to his right and, on the run, threw a 26-yard pass to Cole Kmet. It might’ve been slightly behind Kmet, but the arm strength to make that throw while moving to his right is rare.

Both of Williams’ drives ended in field goals, giving the Bears an early lead against the Bills, who started Josh Allen.

Williams finished with 4 of 7 with 95 throwing yards, while he added one carry for 13 rushing yards. Backup Tyson Bagent took over in the second quarter.

Caleb Williams is MONEY on the run.

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— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

In New York, Daniels and the Washington Commanders took on the Jets. The anticipation for Daniels’ debut, even in the preseason, became must-see TV from the moment Washington drafted the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. His dual-threat capabilities shined on the opening possession.

Daniels, a passer who runs, uncorked a perfect 42-yard strike down the right side to wide receiver Dyami Brown on third-and-six to New York’s 24-yard line. Facing third-and-three from the Jets’ three-yard line after a pair of first downs, Daniels faked a handoff on the zone read and bounced outside for an easy touchdown run to the right corner of the end zone.

Jayden Daniels keeps it for the TD on his opening drive 🔥 @JayD__5

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— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

That was all the coaching staff needed to see, especially with a shorthanded offensive line; Washington’s top three tackles were ruled out. Daniels finished 2-of-3 for 45 yards with the three-yard scamper on the 11-play, 70-yard opening drive. Marcus Mariota took over on the next possession and Daniels’ day was over.

How did Williams look?

It looked similar to his training camp struggles when Williams dropped back for his first NFL pass. The pocket eventually collapsed, he was forced to scramble, Darnell Wright was flagged for holding and Williams eventually threw it away as he got to the sideline. But he kept his eyes downfield the entire time, and two plays later, he calmly went through his reads before hitting DJ Moore for a first down on third-and-12.

On the next play, Williams didn’t panic against the rush and got the ball to D’Andre Swift on a screen pass. It might’ve been a no-look pass, too. Swift took it 42 yards.
The following drive went 74 yards on 12 plays and featured two more Williams completions and a 13-yard scramble on third down — when Williams used his slip n’ slide skills to slide in the open field. — Kevin Fishbain, Bears staff writer

Caleb Williams’ first completion is a laser for a first down

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— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

What ignited his throw to Kmet?

An illegal contact on third down when Williams tried to find wide receiver Rome Odunze ignited that drive. I noticed Williams was pretty adamant a flag be thrown, and he was fired up about the new set of downs. Then he got to work. Kmet and Moore dropped would-be completions, and when Williams’ heave to Odunze on third down in the back of the end zone was too high, you could tell Williams saw an opening and wanted it.

The offense didn’t have any pre-snap penalties, which was a priority for head coach Matt Eberflus. While Williams would’ve liked to have found the end zone, he did plenty to show the potential of what’s to come. — Fishbain

How is Daniels settling in with Washington?

Passing highlights or low moments typically define the perception of a quarterback, especially for a rookie arriving on the scene. Yet the other aspects of the job that require smarts and maturity stood out to coach Dan Quinn in training camp.

The pass to Brown was a strong example. Speaking on the local television broadcast in the first half, running back Austin Ekeler said Daniels checked out of a screen pass to target the receiver running long.

“I had high expectations for (Daniels) coming in,” Quinn said earlier in the week, “but I would say he’s definitely surpassed even my expectations of the readiness, the command. I knew he was going to be cool, knowing the system. He’s just got that way about him.”

The Jets sat 28 players for Saturday’s preseason opener while the Commanders sat 11, including tight end Zach Ertz. That’s important context, especially since Washington’s offense generated minimal yards in Thursday’s rain-soaked joint practice against New York’s first-string defense. However, Daniels displayed poise and steady decision-making. He continued to protect the ball, a habit that’s been constant all training camp.

“It feels like the game is starting to slow down for (Daniels) even more,” McLaurin continued. “Coming in, he had a great feel (for) his ball placement and his anticipation. I think that’s what really sets him apart.

As offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury installed more of the system, Daniels began showing off his arm talent with pinpoint throws down the field. The completion to Brown was quite the example.

Jayden Daniels launches it DEEP on his second throw

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— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

Teammates have praised Daniels’ work ethic — the 23-year-old is among the first to the team facility before practices — and locker room camaraderie. The rookie arrived for Saturday’s game in a Doug Williams jersey. Williams won the 1987 Super Bowl with Washington and currently works as a senior advisor to the team. — Ben Standig, Commanders senior writer

Will Daniels get the starting gig?

Quinn has yet to name the starter for Washington’s Week 1 matchup at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There is no drama here. Daniels will get the gig. He’s earned the opportunity. That’s different from saying he will light up the league from the jump. He’ll need help, and the offensive line questions remain. After one preseason drive, so do the sky-high expectations. — Standig

Required reading

(Photo: Mark Konezny / USA Today)

PARIS — Van Chancellor knew he wanted Diana Taurasi on the 2004 Olympic team in Athens. She was young, skilled, confident, brash. He expected she would be a centerpiece of American basketball in the years to come, but he also knew that she would still be able to contribute on the squad of superstars that had been selected for his team — “Dream On” members who had helped re-center the world of women’s basketball by retaking the gold in 1996 in Atlanta.

On Taurasi’s first day with Team USA that year, just the morning after she had helped UConn to a national title over Tennessee, she sat down on the bus next to Chancellor and asked him a very straightforward question: What do you need out of me, Coach?

“I need for you to act like a rookie,” he told her.

“Coach Chancellor,” she said, “if that’s all you need, I’m ready to roll. I’m ready to help this team.”

That was Diana 20 years ago. It was her four days ago, too, when after 33 consecutive Olympic starts for Team USA, coach Cheryl Reeve moved her to the bench in their quarterfinal game against Nigeria in favor of 26-year-old Jackie Young, the second-youngest player on the roster. When the team broke the huddle, Taurasi bounded back to the bench as if it were where the ball would be tipped. She sat down, rubbed her hands together and locked in.

What did the team need from her in that game? To do exactly that. Be the best leader and teammate, to pass the torch a bit and light everyone else’s fires on the way.

On Sunday, Taurasi will play in her final Olympic basketball game. It’s hard to imagine a USA Basketball world in which Taurasi doesn’t play a part. Of the 60-consecutive wins the program has had, she has been a part of 43.

“She has defined USA Basketball,” Reeve said. “I don’t know that there’s a greater competitor. … Dee is Mount Rushmore in that way.”

After the team won gold in 2021 in Tokyo, Taurasi, then 39, surprised everyone when she stared into the NBC camera and ended her postgame interview by yelling, “See you in Paris!” before she walked off. Sue Bird, who had been in on the interview, too, looked back at the camera with a laugh and remarked, “She said what she said.”

While many assumed the statement was in jest, she did not. She said what she said. And then, she did it. She came to Paris and led this team. First from the starting lineup, and then from the end of the bench.

Against Nigeria, she didn’t enter the game in the first half, and instead was the first to jump out of her seat with good plays from her teammates and coached people up when they came to the bench.

After the semifinal win over Australia, Reeve said that when this is all over, she could speak more truthfully about the burden of carrying the legacy of eight straight gold medals and the expectations of this program. She hasn’t slept much and instead has toiled in the film room imagining all the ways basketball could be unfair to one of the greatest rosters ever assembled. She said she received a message from Dawn Staley, who coached the team in Tokyo to its seventh consecutive gold medal, that read: “There’s nothing I can say to you. I know what you’re feeling. You just have to go through it.”

What do you need out of me, Coach? You can imagine Taurasi saying.

To take a benching, as competitive Taurasi is, in a way speaks to the unselfish nature of this team. To be as steady as possible in a world where Reeve must feel like Atlas at every corner. To be someone who Reeve doesn’t have to worry about when she looks down the bench. Because they have Dee. She has seen everything. Nothing rattles her.

OK, would be Taurasi’s response, if that’s all you need, I’m ready to roll. I’m ready to help this team.

In her sixth and final Olympics (that part is fact — she quipped to reporters in London ahead of the Olympics that they would see her in Los Angeles … “on the beach with a beer”), her inclusion in this roster has been argued by keyboard jockeys who couldn’t name three players on the team.

But as she was in 2004, she is in 2024 — she’s here to help this team. It looks different now than it did a decade ago, two decades ago, but it’s the same Diana. Still, at 42, she leads the guards and wings through every drill. She’s the first to stand up and clap from the bench. First to high-five teammates. First to pull players into the huddle, and first in those huddles to speak.

Diana Taurasi has embraced the mentor’s role on this U.S. team, coming off the bench in each of the Americans’ last two games. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

If that sounds cliché and unimportant, then perhaps it’s because the pressure this team exists underneath is entirely its own. Other teams don’t need a Dee because other teams don’t operate in this unique space of perfection.

Perhaps there’s no better endorsement of Taurasi than the fact that the two best players in the world — A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart — cede their space, their speaking time, their ability to “be first” to someone else.

“The biggest thing that I love about DT is that she does not change,” Wilson said. “She is always so consistent in what she does — that is a sign of greatness.”

Taurasi’s greatness has been on display through these Games. In moments big and small. In how she has handled herself. In her graciousness in understanding her role, and how it has changed. In how she has remained constant in who she is not just in these six games, but in her last 43.

“Think about that — two decades not two Olympics,” said Geno Auriemma, former U.S. national team coach and Taurasi’s college coach at UConn. “The commitment and passion, the love of the game — all these in and of itself would be monumental. But add in that for two decades she was the face of the team, the best player, best teammate and the greatest winner in the history of the game.”

With that commitment and that time has come age. For several years now, Taurasi has made efforts to take care of her body in a different, more focused, way — went vegan, did lengthier pre- and post-practice stretching and treatment regimens longer than the practice itself. She has sacrificed to continue to play, to continue to be here for not just herself but her teammates.

On Sunday, Taurasi will put on her No. 12 USA jersey one final time in an Olympic setting. No athlete has done what she has done before, and it’s hard to imagine it happening again. Nearly half of her life has been spent representing the U.S. on an international stage. But before Taurasi came around, it was hard to imagine 60-straight wins or eight-straight gold medals. Now, Team USA is on the precipice of just that.

Her legacy is cemented, and has been, but in these final Games for her, she has shown what’s possible to both her teammates and the next generation of players. Stewart calls her the “gold standard” of USA Basketball, and she’s just that. And not just because she already has five gold medals to her name.

Every Olympic coach she has had has asked her to do something different for her team — be a rookie, be a scorer, be an elite passer, be a leader, be a veteran, come off the bench, use your voice more than your passing skills. In short: Be Dee.

“I’m here to compete. I’m here to play at a high level. I’m here to give to my teammates and I’m here to win a gold medal — that’s it,” Taurasi said when she arrived in Paris. “I don’t care about the last 20 years. I’m worried about the next 20 years.”

The next 20 years of Team USA are in good hands. Taurasi has made sure of it. Just ask Young. Or Wilson. Or Kahleah Copper. Or Sabrina Ionescu.

And four years from now, when this group is going for a gold medal in Los Angeles, she’ll hopefully be on a beach somewhere, drinking a cold one. She has more than earned it.

GO DEEPER

Can the rest of the world catch up to Team USA? Our women’s basketball experts debate.

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(Top photo of Diana Taurasi during Friday’s semifinal game against Australia: Daniela Porcelli / Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Images)

PARIS — India Sardjoe is 18, with a mouth full of braces, and is on the hunt.

“I really like exchanging pins in the Olympic village,” she said Friday, after taking part in the inaugural Olympic breaking competition at La Concorde. Known in the breaking game as B-Girl India, the 2022 world champion had been one of the favorites coming into the competition but finished just off the medal stand, losing the bronze medal match to China’s B-Girl 671, aka, Liu Qingyi.

In the end, Japan’s B-Girl Ami, aka Ami Yuasa, defeated Lithuania’s B-Girl Nicka (Dominika Banevič) for the gold medal.

“I just, I didn’t nearly focus on medals, actually,” Ami said. “For the final, I just wanted to show my … everything. And I think I did that, yeah.”

A large, enthusiastic and occasionally curious crowd, which featured Snoop Dogg in the afternoon session and IOC president Thomas Bach in the evening one, helped break in breaking, a new sport here but which will not be part of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. There was intrigue in the afternoon when Afghanistan’s Manizha Talash, in her qualifying match against India, unveiled a cape under her jumper that read “Free Afghan Women.” Manash, who was a member of the Refugee Olympic Team, a 37-member contingent of displaced athletes from around the world, was officially disqualified from her match, but had already lost it on points before she displayed her cape.

The debate about whether breaking is walking away from its past, steeped in Black American culture through the dancing of young Black teenagers in the Bronx in the early 1970s, quickly followed by Latino kids in the city, will go on. But for those who pushed for breaking’s inclusion in the Games, after a decade or so of lobbying and building the form through breaking leagues around the world, Friday was a big moment.

Most importantly: Folks were watching on TV. Some, intently. Of course, it was not universally loved. But, what is these days?

Issues like appropriation and erasure of the original culture of breaking should be amplified and heard. But it was hard not to be impressed by the amazing international flavor of the inaugural event here, reflecting the different viewpoints and histories of the estimated 30 million breakers worldwide.

The evening was noisy and raucous, with a stage for the DJs and the judges set up like a boombox, an homage to the old days.

The MCs Friday, Malik and Max, hailed from France, and Portugal, respectively. The DJs were American (DJ Fleg) and Polish (DJ Plash One). The music they played ran the gamut: “Heart ‘n Soul,” by Booker T. Averheart; “Family Affair,” by MFSB; “Blow Your Whistle,” by D.C.’s go-go legends Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers; “Mu Africa,” by The Rift Valley Brothers; “Boom!,” by The Roots.

The final eight women hailed from France, Japan (B-Girl Ami and B-Girl Ayumi), China (B-Girl 671 and B-Girl Ying Zi), Ukraine (B-Girl Kate), France (B-Girl Syssy), the Netherlands (B-Girl India) and Lithuania (B-Girl Nicka). The two U.S. breakers in the field, B-Girl Sunny (Sunny Choi) and B-Girl Logistx (Logan Edra) were eliminated before the quarterfinals. U.S. breaker B-Boy Victor (Victor Montalvo) is among the favorites on the men’s side to medal at the men’s competition Saturday.

“Honestly, I didn’t really get to process everything yet,” said Kate, full name Kateryna Pavlenko, who lost in the quarters. “But I can’t believe it’s over. I was waiting for this day for a long time. Now it’s done, for me. It feels great. I think everybody did a great job, and I think (the) representation of breaking was super-high level from the b-girls. I’m very happy I ended up in the top eight — best b-girls in the world, let me say.”

The athletic ability of so many of the breakers was astounding, as they top rocked and down rocked. B-Girl Ami, who didn’t appear to have a fixed spine, dominated France’s B-Girl Syssy in the opening quarterfinal, 3-0, then squeaked out a 2-1 semifinal over India. B-Girl 671 seemed to change directions, somehow, while balanced on her head. Nicka didn’t spin as much as she floated along the ground. Nicka beat 671 in the semifinals, 2-1; 671 beat India for the bronze.

Someone asked 671 afterward if the tears in her eyes were because she was happy at winning bronze, or because she lost a chance at winning gold.

“Both,” she said. “The first Olympics I go to, the medal, first, I’m happy. But also, the battle turned out a bit (badly). But I will still keep going.”

From left, B-Girl Nicka (silver), B-Girl Ami (gold) and B-Girl 671 (bronze) show off their medals from the inaugural Olympic breaking competition. (Elsa / Getty Images)

B-Girl Kate moved to Los Angeles just before the Russian invasion into Ukraine in 2022. Her family remains there. So it is even more imperative to her to use breaking to send a message of hope and possibility to her people back home.

“It’s very important, because I was born there,” she said Friday. “It shaped me as a person. It made me who I am. Because of Ukraine, I thought it might be not fair to represent any other country. I’m Ukrainian. I was born and raised there. I left early. For me, I know a lot of b-boys and b-girls are watching me, and I give them a little bit of hope to represent, somebody they can look up to. And for me, it’s the highest reward ever. … If I can inspire or touch somebody from Ukraine with my dance, I’m happy.”

There will likely never be a happy marriage between the old and new schools of breaking. Maybe a marriage of convenience is the best that can be done. The desire to monetize and showcase breaking on bigger platforms in the United States will likely make keeping it solely under the watch and influence of the originators of the art form impossible. But many among the new generation of breaking, and breakers, understand that attention must be paid to the originators and innovators that created the dance, and on whose shoulders they stand.

“It’s a huge responsibility to represent and raise the bar, every time, for breaking,” Nicka said Friday. “Because they did an amazing job. Big respect for the OGs and the pioneers that invented all those moves. Without them, it wouldn’t be possible. I’m grateful for them.”

GO DEEPER

A Ukrainian breaker’s journey to the Paris Olympics

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(Top photo of B-Girl Ami during Friday’s breaking competition at the Olympics: Elsa / Getty Images)