The San Francisco Giants did not have the MLB trade deadline that some had hoped for, continuing a worrying trend for their front office.

As Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report looked around the league for one word to describe each team, they found an interesting one for the Giants. In an ominous outlook for the front office, ‘pink’ was used to express how he felt their future looked.

“[San Francisco] President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi learned under two Hall of Fame-level executives in Billy Beane and Andrew Friedman, but outside of a Cinderella season in 2021, hasn’t been able to replicate the success of his two mentors,” said Kelly. “The Giants are under .500, and still have the same lack of superstars as when he arrived in November of 2018. A year after manager Gabe Kapler was dismissed, you wonder whether Zaidi will receive a pink slip from San Francisco ownership in the coming months.”

It has not been a year to write home about for the San Francisco President of Baseball Operations.

He gave a few huge contracts out in the offseason in hopes of pushing over the edge, but almost none of the signings have worked out in his favor.

The biggest addition was reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

Snell began his Giants tenure about as poorly as anyone could have imagined. He started the year late because he missed Spring Training. Once he finally got on the mound, he was shelled and then placed on the injured list.

Things have finally turned a corner, though. He looked vintage in the month of July, putting forth a 0.75 ERA across 24 innings of work in four games.

Though he was finally looking like the player that San Francisco had paid $32 million for, it was a bit too late for them to be real contenders. Given that he has a player option next year and will almost certainly not be taking it, pretty much everyone wanted Zaidi to trade him away in a sellers market.

Instead, they kept him around. He threw a no-hitter, which was fun, but was it worth missing out on the prospects that he could have brought in?

Matt Chapman was a similar case of someone that was signed to a big one-year deal with player options in place after that. He didn’t get traded, which wasn’t too surprising, but he also hasn’t had a huge impact.

Jorge Soler also got off to a pretty horrid start, but turned things around and finally started playing at a high level. Though he was the one player of the three that was under contract for the next few seasons, he was the one player they decided to ship off.

Jung Hoo Lee was a big signing that hasn’t worked out because he got injured, it’s a bit unfair to blame that on Zaidi.

It’s just been a confusing few months for the Giants. Them switching leadership at the season’s end would not be surprising at all.

The early look at the NFL’s new kickoff rule in Thursday night’s Hall of Fame preseason game didn’t provide much interesting data.

Broncos head coach Sean Payton doesn’t think the preseason as a whole will be much more fruitful. The veteran coach said Denver might use a joint practice with Green Bay to work on the real stuff, but otherwise figures most teams will play coy until the regular season.

“Every team in the league will hold on to some of the things they want to do for Week 1,” Payton said. “I was talking to (former referee) Walt Anderson today and I said, ‘Walt, you’re not going to see in the preseason. You just aren’t.’ … And I would tell you this — when we get to Week 1, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another tweak or two (to the rules) that they’ve made a change on. Not significant.”

Payton has an idea on that front.

The new rule has three possible starting yardages — the 20 on a ball that hits in the landing zone (from the 20 to the goal line) and rolls into the end zone, the 30 for a traditional touchback and the 40 for a ball that goes out of bounds or lands short of the landing zone.

Payton said he’d prefer any “box foul” — out of bounds, short of the landing zone or touchback — starts at the 35.

That, he said, makes the rule easier to follow for fans.

“I get the box. I like it,” Payton said. “If the analytics tell me that the average drive start or average return is past the 30, well, what do you think is going to start happening? Touchbacks. We’re going to be right back to where we were, and that’s the last thing we want. We’ve got to pay attention to that. And the other thing I think is significant is I don’t like the three different starting spots. … If it’s outside the box, put it at the same spot. I think right now it’ll take a lot of fans a lot of time to figure out the three spots.”

The 35-yard line also would be penalty enough to make teams think twice about touchbacks.

“I’m not going to be comfortable with saying, hey, kick a touchback and give them the ball at the 35,” he said. “Now maybe in the fourth quarter with a two-touchdown lead, but the 30, look, just do the math. If the average return is past the 30 and we’re getting explosives, there’s times where I’m going to look at the scoreboard and say, hey, we’re up 10 here in the third quarter, we might be comfortable with the 30.

“I feel like the 35 would give us what we initially did all this work for. Make a box foul. That’s easy. Make it a box foul and there’s two spots. But right now that’s not where it’s at and we’re pushing.”

Dog days. The Broncos polished off a six-day week of camp practices and now the players are off Sunday before ramping up for another full week. They’ll practice Monday through Thursday in normal camp fashion and then do prep for their preseason opener against Indianapolis Friday and in Saturday’s walkthrough before traveling East.

“All next week we’ve already shelled out all the way through Saturday’s walkthrough and the (bus) to the airport,” Payton said. “Every minute is accounted for for next week.”

While the structure of practice is set, Payton said the staff hadn’t finalized exactly how the quarterbacks will rotate through the week. He also said playing time for the game will be determined later next week.

One step toward those decisions: The staff meets Sunday to talk through the roster, personnel and the coming week.

Fantasy-free TE. Adam Trautman does not care about fantasy football.

You won’t find the Broncos tight end near the top of positional lists while studying for your fantasy draft, nor will you likely throw the ball deep to him often in Madden. But he’s not sweating it.

“Yeah, thanks for asking that. I don’t care,” Trautman said. “I couldn’t care less about fantasy. … (People) gauge a lot of how good you are off of fantasy, but that’s not really how it is.”

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Originally Published: August 3, 2024 at 2:35 p.m.

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen doesn’t care what people think about his 2023 season.

After making the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2022, and tying for the NFL lead with six interceptions, Woolen took a step back production-wise last season. He dealt with a shoulder injury that seemingly hindered his physicality, and he was benched twice — once because of health and another time due to performance.

Woolen, when speaking to the reporters after practice on Friday, didn’t shy away from evaluating his season. He said he still had fun, and it was just another step in his career.

“I’ve been through ups and downs. I’ve been to the Pro Bowl, I’ve been on the bench before,” Woolen said. “It was just all part of the journey to me. I felt like as a young player I had to go through that just because it shows me that there’s some places that I don’t want to be and there’s places where I do want to be. That’s being a Pro Bowler, that’s to help my team get to the Super Bowl and just be a great player.”

Woolen finished last season with 10 fewer tackles (53), four fewer interceptions (2) and five fewer pass deflections (11) than he did as a rookie. He surrendered fewer receiving yards and yards per reception by a large margin but allowed a 62.1 percent completion percentage, per Pro Football Focus — about seven points higher than in 2022.

As the former Pro Bowler said himself, there were ups and downs.

“Honestly, I just felt like last year was a great year for me,” Woolen added. “To some people, they may have their own opinions but those [are] the same people that’s not playing the game. So, it’s okay with me. I feel great and I feel like this year will be even better.”

Entering this season, Woolen said he is trying to focus on learning the new scheme and adapting to the new system, coaches and teammates in general. In terms of improvement, Woolen said he emphasized getting stronger over the offseason.

Early in training camp, Woolen has already been battling with wide receiver DK Metcalf, with Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald calling the competition “iron sharpening iron.”

“With my reps and everything at camp, it has been showing that I put the work in … I do have faith in myself to continue to build off of it,” Woolen said.

Whether criticism of Woolen’s tackling ability is warranted or not, he has remained a plus starter in coverage. That’s already a strength of Woolen’s, and he believes he’s becoming a more complete cover corner heading into his third season.

Woolen wants to get better in off coverage (lining up off the line of scrimmage, instead of in press coverage), and that’s been a point of focus for him in camp, he said.

“I know that I’m a great press corner, but it’s a difference when you can play all two and you can change the game up,” Woolen said. “That’s something I feel like I got better at. Even at practice each day, I’ve been working on it. And certain days, I’ve been doing some days where I’m off and some days where I’m pressed up.”

For the first time in his NFL career, Woolen is also traveling in practice. Former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll always had his corners remain on the left or right side of the field. Macdonald, at least in practice, is switching that up.

Allowing corners to travel will benefit the disguised coverages in Macdonald’s scheme. Also, if they can play in different spots, you can match your best corner against the opposition’s top receiver on every down.

“When it comes down to it, it’s just football,” Woolen said. “Whenever you’re a great player like I am you’ve got to do certain things, and that’s one of the things I want to do. I want to play both sides. I want to travel. I want to do stuff like that. I don’t think it’s hard at all. I’m an athlete. I trust myself and I’m confident in what I do. So far, it’s been a breeze and I’m just getting better every day.”

Through nine training camp practices, Woolen is silencing any doubt that has carried over from the 2023 season. If he can put together all the tools he’s working to improve in camp, he could re-emerge as one of the top corners in the NFL in 2024.

More importantly, perhaps, he could be a key cog in Macdonald’s defense which looks to be one of the more innovative units in the league.