Ten Things I Think I Think

Rex Grossman completed his first eight pass attempts in the Bears' 20-19 win over the Texans. Bob Levey/Getty Images

MAILBAG Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

1. I think you shouldn't draw conclusions from anything in the preseason, but these are some of the things that caught my eye over the weekend:

a. Rex Grossman completed his first eight passes against Houston. The first throw of his summer, perhaps auspiciously, was to rookie tight end Greg Olsen. America, you're going to like Olsen. Big and fast.

b. Trent Green got booed in Miami while going 6 of 15 in the first half, with a 24.3 quarterback rating, against Jacksonville. Do you people in South Florida eat your young? Give the guy a chance. "It's a crazy business,'' said Green.

c. Nice (and ultimately, meaningless) start on the season of redemption, Edgerrin James: two carries for three yards at Oakland.

d. David Carr took two sacks against the Giants, but he completed 6 of 8 throws.

e. Byron Leftwich took two sacks against the Dolphins, but he looked a little more athletic than normal, and hit on 7 of 10 for a 126.2 rating.

f. Rookie starters on opening preseason night, among others: Olsen; Pittsburgh strongside linebacker LaMarr Woodley; St. Louis defensive tackle Adam Carriker; Washington strong safety LaRon Landry; Houston defensive tackle Amobi Okoye; Cleveland left tackle Joe Thomas; Oakland defensive end Quentin Moses; and three for the Dolphins -- center Samson Satele (second round), defensive tackle Paul Soliai (fourth) and right guard Drew Mormino (sixth).

g. Another sack for Kamerion Wimbley against Kansas City. The first of many this year.

h. Tatum Bell looked fast and quick, predictably, against the Bengals. His presence, and the defense's inability to ignore him, will free up the passing game even more -- assuming, of course, the shaky Lions line can protect Jon Kitna.

i. Carriker looks as if he'll solidify the interior Rams run defense. And the Rams coaches love running back Brian Leonard, who burst up the middle for a touchdown. If both players work out, that's an outstanding first- and second-round combo platter for the Rams.

j. Two good catches by Calvin Johnson against the Bengals.

k. I know a lot of the yards came with scrubeenies on the field, but the Bengals did give up 497 passing yards. And I know I say you shouldn't pay much attention to football in August, but I am going to be watching that back seven of the Bengals. It should worry every fan of the men in stripes. By the way, I had a pro personnel guy say to me Sunday: "I don't care about the score of the game in the preseason. I care only about watching individual players.''

2. I think I could not be more sick of a topic than of Pacman Jones. Look, he's an idiot who can't grasp the seriousness of his predicament -- the likelihood that someday soon he'll go to jail for something and blame everyone else except himself. I got sick of the coverage this week. The ESPN interview by Dana Jacobson the other day was very well done. The deconstructing of it for days was maddening.

There's so much media now we spend three days reviewing sound bites and not nearly enough time reviewing what's important. I mean, Bill Walsh dies on a Monday afternoon, and it's old news Tuesday night. Pacman Jones opens his mouth and threatens to wrestle, and it's still treated as news 72 hours later ... and it would have been treated as news even if the Titans had not gone to court to try to prevent him from doing it.

Speaking of ESPN, a great note from Ed Werder before the Cowboys-Colts preseason opener -- the first tackle Dallas made in the game would be their first full-contact tackle of the summer, because Wade Phillips hadn't had the team in any full-contact situations yet. Amazing in this day and age that full-speed tackling is very rarely practiced in camps around the league. Even in tradition-loving places like Pittsburgh (one practice), Buffalo (two practices) and Chicago (two practices), I saw zero put-'em-on-the-ground tackling drills or full-contact tackling.

3. I think we can't write enough or say enough about how disgraceful it is that the NFL charges regular-season prices for these preseason games. Flipping through the weekend games, you could see the yawning gaps of empty seats ... and realize the empty seats didn't mean the tickets weren't sold. They were, for the most part. But the people had no desire to go to the games. The Jets-Falcons game, for instance -- Chad Pennington played two series and never threw a pass. Charging regular-season prices is a blatant disregard for the fans.

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