Some hot July takes about the NFL season, plus Cooper Flagg’s near-poster

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Good morning! Try that poster dunk today. It’ll look cool no matter what.

Glimpses: The prodigal son almost did a big dunk

Before we get to football, we must talk about Cooper Flagg and what he attempted to do last night. 

Flagg, the No. 1 pick in last month’s NBA Draft, made his Summer League debut last night against Bronny James and the Lakers. Flagg was … fine (10 points on 5-of-21 shooting), but showed flashes of his supreme talent, including this:

COOPER FLAGG ALMOST THREW THIS DOWN IN GAME 1 😱 pic.twitter.com/4zrk2oqM2a

— NBA (@NBA) July 11, 2025

I talked to Bounce author Zach Harper, who was in the building for this game and gave me a short review of the 18-year-old Flagg’s effort: 

“Flagg had lots of good aggressive moments, an attempted baptism at the rim with a missed dunk, and showed a great sense of the court and how to move the ball. But he still needs to figure out how to cleanly create shots for himself at the NBA level, as was evident in his poor shooting night.”

Sounds about right. You know who looked comfortable? James, who seems quite ready to make a developmental leap this year. 

Onto the gridiron:

Appetizers: Mmm, football

July is a unique time in the sports calendar. Baseball is humming but the playoffs are still off in the distance. Special events take center stage, like Wimbledon or whatever grand soccer tournament is occurring that year. But on the back of our palates lies a familiar taste, calling to us from the near future: football. 

NFL training camps start next week, and for all intents and purposes, August is football season. We’re so, so close. I figured it was time to whet our appetite a bit. 

Consider this an appetizer course, featuring Scoop City’s Jacob Robinson: 

1. Let’s start broadly. What’s your most interesting division? I nominate the AFC North and the AFC West.
My gut reaction was the AFC West, but no division is more interesting than the NFC North. Ben Johnson’s Bears are challenged by a division that was historically great in 2024. Can Detroit’s new coaching staff maintain the prior regime’s success? Will Jordan Love take another step for the Packers? Can J.J. McCarthy become a franchise quarterback?

2. What’s one thing we aren’t talking about enough right now?
The Vikings are somehow better on paper than last year’s 14-win team. Blame their late-season collapse on the interior of their offensive line and Sam Darnold. Both are fixed, with the interior of their line drastically improved via free agency and the draft, while McCarthy, the No. 10 pick in 2024, should be an upgrade over Darnold. Pair an elite offense with one of the league’s best defenses — which remains almost fully intact — and you have a team that can hang with anyone.

3. Who gets more wins this year: Aaron Rodgers or Justin Fields?
Rodgers. He goes 10-7 before losing in the Wild Card round. Would you expect anything else from a Mike Tomlin-coached team?

4. I’d like one blazing take from you, and I’ll offer a spicy one of my own: Saquon Barkley comes nowhere near his production from last year. I think the wear and tear of last year was too much. OK, go: 

The Athletic’s Jim Ayello agrees with you.

As for my pick, I see the Cardinals finishing ahead of the 49ers, Rams and Seahawks to win the competitive NFC West. Kyler Murray gets MVP votes (but finishes second), while coach Jonathan Gannon, who doubled his team’s win totals in each of his first two seasons, wins Coach of the Year. 

Not spicy enough? How about this: This year’s NFC winner isn’t the Eagles, Lions or Vikings. Instead, Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers represent the NFC in this year’s Super Bowl. I’ll explain why in an upcoming edition of The Athletic’s NFL newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

Wow, elite sell at the end there. Jacob’s newsletter is a must-read and will be ramping up to five days a week soon as we truly enter football season. 

Let’s keep moving:

News to Know

A Wimbledon stunner
Amanda Anisimova is through to the Wimbledon final after upsetting No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka yesterday in three sets, becoming the best story of this tournament in the process. Anisimova is a former teen tennis prodigy who lost her way after her father (who was also her coach) died unexpectedly in 2019. Awaiting her in the final: Iga Świątek, who put on a “masterclass” yesterday.

The Thunder pay up, again
The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder agreed to a five-year rookie extension with Jalen Williams worth up to $287 million, a source told The Athletic, the third time in the last two weeks this organization has committed $250 million-plus to a player. Williams was awesome during a season that produced 68 regular-season wins and a title. Still, whew.

More news

• Remember we wrote about Michael Jordan’s house for sale last year? You can now rent it on Airbnb.
  
• MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is pushing for a salary cap, according to the union. Also in favor of a salary cap in his sport: Colorado coach Deion Sanders.
  
• Also in baseball, which we missed yesterday: Robot umps are coming to the All-Star Game.
  
• Lee Elia, the MLB manager best remembered for one of the best profane rants in baseball history, died Wednesday at 87.
  
• Chargers running back Najee Harris suffered a “superficial eye injury” in a fireworks accident at a July 4 party. Ouch. Details here. 
  
• Some Caitlin Clark rookie cards that figure to break a record are going up for auction over the next two days. One is up to $170,000 already.
  
• The New York Cosmos are alive again, this time in the USL. Read more here.

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What to Watch

📺 Wimbledon: Fritz vs. Alcaraz
8:30 a.m. ET on ESPN
I must use this space as an apology to Fritz, who’s the actual last American man standing in this tournament, despite what we wrote yesterday about Ben Shelton. Upsetting the defending champion would be proper punishment for the Pulse. Jannik Sinner-Novak Djokovic is on after this, too. 

📺 Euros 2025: Portugal vs. Belgium
3 p.m. ET on FS1
We’re in the final matches of the group stage here, and Portugal needs a win and a dream to advance. They trail second-place Italy by three points and six goals, so they’ll need a blowout win and an Italian loss to Spain. See all the tiebreaking scenarios here. 

📺 MLB: Mariners at Tigers
7:15 p.m. ET on Apple TV+
Wait, two straight days recommending the Mariners? Yes, because they’re fun, but this is more about watching Tarik Skubal throw for the MLB-best Tigers. Click it. 

Get tickets to games like these here.

Pulse Picks

A pertinent follow-up from the college football rivalries content this week: fan survey results. I agree about the Cocktail Party, too. 

Why was Christian Horner fired? Luke Smith has the inside story on the saga still rocking F1 two days later. 

NCAA Tournament expansion is a joke, as Joe Rexrode writes, but sadly the punchline is drawing ever closer. Nothing’s been so clearly and grossly greedy, in my opinion. 

How big is the “no-state-tax” advantage for the Florida Panthers? Dom Luszczyszyn has the numbers. 

The HBCU Swingman Classic isn’t just some one-off event at the MLB All-Star Game. It’s crucial exposure for players who don’t play at bigger schools. 

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The hilarious and unflattering trading cards. 

Most-read on the website yesterday: Our story on Anisimova’s upset.

(Top photo: Elsa / Getty Images)

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