NFL’s best overreactions come at OTAs. This year is no different

Tuesday marked the midpoint between the end of the 2016 season and the beginning of the coming season. We’re in this long, difficult stretch with no football, and that means that when organized team activities roll around, people are desperate to hear the latest about their favorite teams.

The problem with OTAs is that they’re just a bunch of guys doing drills in shorts and helmets with no pads on, and you’re not going to get much football news out of any of it. What you will get, however, is plenty of hyperbole or extremely vague descriptions of what players did during practice. There’s not much in between.

The quarterback position wasn’t a strength for the Broncos last year, so you’ll be thrilled to know that both Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch had “a good day” at OTAs this week, according to NBC Sports’ Josh Alper.

The Broncos are having an open competition between the two for the starting job, and each quarterback will get to run reps with the first team for five of the team’s 10 OTA practices. On Tuesday, it was Siemian’s turn to be the starter, but Vance Joseph was pleased with each player’s performance.

But wait: Maybe one of these young quarterbacks had a slightly better day than the other one.

Joseph might as well go ahead and hand the starting job to Siemian. How could Lynch possibly compete with someone who got a few minutes of extra practice in during OTAs?

Ron Rivera said that Kelvin Benjamin reported to offseason workouts carrying a bit of extra weight. While there were rumors that the wide receiver had ballooned up to 280 pounds, the team refuted that. Then a video came out of Benjamin running a route, and he looked slow, and his weight became a hot topic of conversation.

Benjamin says he’s working to get into the best shape of his life, and he has plenty of time to do so. It’s May.

People are up in arms about this one. Beckham isn’t at Giants OTAs, which are voluntary. Instead, he’s working out with Johnny Manziel, who is attempting an NFL comeback. It’s not going over well, particularly with Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News.

“Odell Beckham Jr.‘s absence from the first two days of Giants OTAs didn’t look good,” Leonard writes. “The fact he was with Johnny Manziel of all people, rather than Eli Manning, looks even worse.”

Come on. Beckham was working out with Manziel. It’s not like they were hanging out on a party boat or anything.

Manziel has certainly had his share of issues, but Beckham isn’t going to miss much over these couple of days of OTAs. And Beckham isn’t concerned.

This is pretty groundbreaking analysis from Washington head coach Jay Gruden.

Bear in mind, there’s no contact during OTAs. It’s a rule teams have to strictly follow, otherwise they can be docked this practice time for the following offseason as punishment. That means players can only stand out so much, but that doesn’t stop reporters from playing it up.

For the Giants, it’s defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, defensive tackle Damon “Snacks” Harrison, and wide receiver Roger Lewis. Lewis “hauled in a handful of passes, including a deep hookup with backup quarterback Josh Johnson,” according to Dan Salomone of Giants.com. That’s enough to make Lewis shine by OTA standards.

The Giants aren’t the only NFC East blowing ’em away.

The NFL might not be ready for the 2016 Offensive Rookie of the Year’s second season:

And he has a new favorite target (sorry Dez):

They’re doing this against defenders who aren’t allowed to make contact, so take it with a grain of salt.

One Cowboys player who isn’t making an impact right now is Ezekiel Elliott. Elliott is sidelined after hitting his head in a minor car accident. But it seems his teammates are doing some pretty impressive things without him.

In this case, J.J. Watt is correct. Texans offensive lineman David Quessenberry returned to the field for the first time after successfully battling non-Hodgkin lymphoma into remission. That really is the best story of OTAs.