These 3 silly NFL stories make us want the new season to get here already

Sixteen more days, folks. As of today, we have 16 days left until the Packers head to Chicago to open up the NFL season on Thursday night. When the ball is placed on the tee and launched into the air, the regular season will have begun.

At that moment, all the preseason nonsense will be nonexistent.

We are almost there, but until the foot hits the ball, silly preseason storylines will dominate the news cycle. So far this week, we’ve already had to deal with three of them.

Baker Mayfield shares his thoughts about Daniel Jones

Yup, another Baker Mayfield story. In a new GQ profile, Mayfield was quoted with what seemed like a shot at Giants rookie Daniel Jones.

“I cannot believe the Giants took Daniel Jones,” Mayfield says, about New York’s much-maligned draft-day decision to spend the sixth pick on the quarterback from Duke (whose college record was a measly 17–19). “Blows my mind.”

I tell Mayfield that I’m mystified that so many supposedly expert quarterback scouts seem unable to predict what makes a good NFL quarterback.

“Some people overthink it,” Mayfield says. “That’s where people go wrong. They forget you’ve gotta win.

Look, I agree with Mayfield about Jones. Not the winning part, but just the draft pick of Jones in general.

But winning in college hasn’t meant much to success in the NFL. Quite often, it’s the opposite. The winningest college quarterbacks are often failures in the NFL. For example, Tim Tebow was 35-6 in college; Patrick Mahomes was 13-16.

My issue, as usual with Mayfield, is that he’s going out of his way to make comments about a player, even if he later tried to walk it back. But he brought that on himself. Mayfield wasn’t asked about Jones, nor was the article about him. The NFL has a way to humble athletes who talk too much before they’ve arrived, especially at the quarterback position.

The good news is that in a three short weeks when the Titans show up to Cleveland, this story will die down.

The latest development in #HelmetGate

On Monday night, news broke that Antonio Brown is filing another grievance with the league over his helmet. Now, Brown is arguing that he should be allowed a one-year grace period to wear a newer model of his preferred helmet even thought it failed a safety test.

Yep, you guessed it: he’s not going to win that grievance. The NFL isn’t going to let him wear a helmet it knows isn’t safe. The league would get sued the second Brown retired. Also, if it allows Brown to wear that helmet, then every other NFL player can do the same, and that’s not happening.

AB, please wear the new helmet. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Jason Witten, Joe Staley, and more have all switched.

Ezekiel Elliott takes offense to Jerry Jones’ joke

The last story I can’t wait to disappear is Zeke Elliott’s holdout. We know he’s coming back at some point because he’s not going to risk skipping a free agency year. After the Cowboys’ preseason game against the Rams, Jerry Jones was asked a question framed around rookie running back Tony Pollard’s performance and if this helps the Cowboys.

Jones, clearly saying this playfully, responded with “Zeke who?”

The media scrum seemed shocked as Jones remained quiet for five seconds. Then he started to laugh and everyone got the joke. It was reported that Elliott and his agent found the comment distasteful. Ugh. What a pointless story, especially when Elliott comes back to the team, most likely with a new deal.

This preseason is full of stories I can’t wait to go away. For more thoughts, please watch this Periscope!