Week 2 of the preseason is usually the most informative week of exhibition play. For some teams, it’s the last week that players at the top of the roster actually play, and position battles start to get settled. Teams around the league also held joint practices, and performances from those practices are also part of the evaluation. The Philadelphia Eagles’ offense is a work in progress, the Cleveland Browns quarterback “battle” is winding down, and Rueben Bain Jr. might make the NFL look shortsighted. Read on as we break it all down.Notes from the Raiders-Texans, Vikings-Ravens and Eagles-Patriots joint practicesThe Las Vegas Raiders’ run defense was terrible, but the Houston Texans’ offensive line, bolstered by first-round pick Keylan Rutledge, looked physical — the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The Texans still have some shuffling to do on the offensive line. For example, Rutledge could start at center or guard. The bar isn’t high, but this could be the best Texans line in a long time.Running back David Montgomery, who the Texans traded for, is a massive upgrade, while Woody Marks appears to have gained some weight and could be a more physical runner this season. The effectiveness of Houston’s offensive line could have huge ramifications for the league because of how good the Texans’ defense is. If the offense can run the ball well enough to be average, this team looks like a Super Bowl contender.I spoke with The Athletic’s Alec Lewis, who covers the Minnesota Vikings, about their joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens. Both offenses struggled, as Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Ravens head coach Jesse Minter dialed up pressure. The Ravens corners looked fantastic against the Vikings’ talented receiving corps. The Ravens corners have struggled in recent seasons. If Ravens 2024 first-round pick Nate Wiggins can take the next step in his development, and Marlon Humphrey can bounce back, it’ll allow Minter to open up the playbook. With the Los Angeles Chargers, he had to protect his corners with scheme, so it’ll be interesting to see how his defense fares if he can trust his corners to play with more aggression.The Eagles’ running game looked good on the first day of joint practices with the New England Patriots but fell off on the second day. I spoke with a source on the Patriots staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they don’t have permission from the team to comment publicly. That source said that Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ passing game struggled in the joint sessions. Hurts either was late, didn’t see open targets or threw interceptions in the middle of the field.This could become an issue because in new Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s offense, Hurts will be asked to attack the middle of the field off of play-action more than ever before in his career. It seems as if Saquon Barkley and the Eagles’ offensive line might have to carry this offense early in the season.There are a couple of reasons athletic quarterbacks rarely throw to the middle of the field. One is that they have less practice throwing into some of those tight windows because, for most of their careers, they could just run when things got muddy. Another is that they are often a bit shorter, which makes it harder to see over the offensive line. Like Hurts, the Vikings’ Kyler Murray is being asked to perform in a new offense this season. Before a joint practice last week, Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell talked about a play in which Murray reluctantly admitted that he couldn’t see the play develop.“It’s going to happen from time to time, depending on the angle and how the protection and rush patterns work,” he said. “That’s going to be part of it, but he also has a lot of experience understanding space based upon the defense they play, and what we’re trying to do from a standpoint of attacking voids and vacancies.”O’Connell said he showed the Vikings quarterbacks the clip of Drew Brees talking about how he couldn’t see over the middle of the field in his Hall of Fame induction speech. Trusting your read and throwing blind at times is a big adjustment for quarterbacks who haven’t done it their whole lives. We’ll see if Hurts and Murray can adjust, but it’s also up to their coaches to put their players in position to succeed as they deal with some growing pains.