Jarrett Bell’s Monday Morning takes on Sean Payton’s blueprint, Donald’s comeback buzz, and the NFL’s next business era

Monday Morning JB is a weekly habit for NFL readers who want perspective as much as they want game-day details. In his latest column for Week 3 of the 2026 preseason, USA TODAY NFL columnist Jarrett Bell, who has covered the league since 1993 and has been recognized with the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Bill Nunn Memorial Award for career achievement, outlines a handful of storylines he believes are shaping the league’s immediate outlook.

Bell’s first through-line is coaching and preparation, centered on Sean Payton and what Bell calls a “master plan.” The point of emphasis, as Bell frames it, is not merely what a team runs, but why it is running it at that stage of the preseason. In practice, that often means using early reps to test decision-making under game-like constraints, layering concepts so that a coordinator’s identity shows up before the games matter for standings or postseason placement.

The column also turns to veteran-star gravity and the kind of “return” conversations that show up in late summer NFL coverage. Bell’s title references Donald and “Donald’s return,” indicating that the writer believes the league’s narrative will be affected by a familiar, high-impact presence coming back into view. In the preseason setting, these returns matter most for how they affect opponents’ preparation, because even limited preseason work can force schematic adjustments and alter how teams protect key matchups.

Bell then pivots from the football field to the sport’s business side with the notion of a “$25 billion NFL team.” Even without a single game result on the page, the money storyline is relevant because team valuation and ownership investment are increasingly tied to roster-building timelines, stadium and infrastructure planning, and the ability to retain coaching and player talent. In other words, the title suggests Bell is treating NFL football as a blended product, where on-field performance and off-field capital reinforce each other.

What makes Bell’s approach worth noting is the context he brings from decades of coverage and recurring involvement in broader football recognition processes. Bell has served on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee since 1997 and has participated in AP award and Super Bowl MVP voting panels for more than 25 years. That background does not make his claims automatically correct, but it helps explain why his column tends to connect week-to-week observations to bigger league patterns.

Still, because this is a Monday column that functions more as a guided tour than a box score breakdown, readers should treat it as interpretive journalism rather than a substitute for official reporting. Preseason storylines can be fluid, and writers can emphasize themes for narrative clarity even when team situations are in motion.

For viewers and fans, the practical question after Bell’s framing is simple: will the coaching emphasis translate into consistent execution as the preseason compresses toward the regular season, and will the veteran-return storyline have enough on-field impact to change how teams defend key matchups? Those are the developments to watch next, particularly as preseason work tightens and teams start to separate experimentation from identity.

If Bell’s Week 3 themes hold, the NFL’s early-season conversation will remain crowded: schematic intent from the league’s coaching architects, the league’s ability to sustain star-level interest across seasons, and the growing scale of the business engine that sits behind every roster decision.