Happy Friday, everyone! The NFL preseason is continuing to ramp up with three games played yesterday and more to come this weekend. Oddly enough, one of the Thursday games was something of a Montana-flavored miniature Big Sky Conference reunion. I’m referring to the last game of the evening between the Seattle Seahawks and the Las Vegas Raiders.

Preseason games in the NFL are typically the territory of beat writers, diehard fans and fantasy football obsessives, owing to the fact that starters either play very little or not at all, and the games often end up revolving around players who are on the bubble of making a team’s final roster. On top of that, teams still haven’t smoothed out all the rough edges, so penalties and foolish plays can sometimes come in droves. I happen to enjoy some preseason football, although typically in small doses. Last night, however, I stuck around to the bitter end of the Raiders-Seahawks game.

The overarching narrative heading into the game was that former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll would be returning to Seattle at the helm of another team, and was intent on settling old scores. On top of that, Carroll’s quarterback in Vegas is none other than former Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith. But, I suspect for Montanans watching the game, their attention was elsewhere.

For starters, Butte celebrity and Montana State football legend Tommy Mellott plays for the Raiders, who took him with one of ther last picks of the 2025 NFL draft. If you’re curious to peek behind the scenes, ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler has done a great job covering Mellott’s path to the NFL in a pair of stories in which at first he is only referred to as “Prospect X.” The Prospect X story form is one ESPN has taken on for the last six years, and some Bobcat fans this time around quickly pieced together that Mellott was the man of mystery when the story first dropped in April. As Kahler reported after the draft, the Raiders saw Mellott as having the potential to play a sort of Swiss Army knife role because of his ability to run, catch and pass the ball.

So, you’ve got Tommy Mellott, a storied Montana quarterback trying to make it in the NFL by changing positions to become a wide receiver. Why else would Montana football fans be interested in last night’s game?

Well, Mellott’s rival, Cam Miller, the quarterback for North Dakota State who defeated Mellott in the FCS Championship last year, was also drafted by the Raiders. In fact, Miller completed a pass last night to Mellott late in the game. Unfortunately, Seattle sniffed out the play and it went for a loss of two yards.

But there are even more reasons Montana football fans might have taken an interest in this preseason matchup. For example, Mellott’s former teammate, safety Ty Okada, plays for the Seahawks. Okada was actually a team captain last night, alongside Kalispell’s own Patrick O’Connell, who graduated from Glacier High and played for the Griz.

The most recent Seahawks depth chart released shows that O’Connell has worked his way up to second string middle linebacker, and he saw some relatively early action last night. It’s a nice sign for a player who went undrafted, and has spent a good chunk of his NFL career so far toiling away on the Seahawks’ practice squad. He’s headed into his third year in the NFL, and has seen limited action so far. Pro Football Reference credits him with six games played and three tackles. Last night, he was credited with one assisted tackle in the first quarter against Raiders running back Raheem Mostert. Mostert, even though he’s now 33 (that’s relatively old in NFL terms) is still considered one of the fastest players in the league.

As for how the game played out, nobody won. That’s right, when the clock struck zero, the Seattle Seahawks and Las Vegas Raiders had played themselves to a 23-23 tie. So much for Pete Caroll’s quest for revenge. I’m Mike Kordenbrock, kicking you off to the Daily Roundup …