The preseason is over and most of the questions have been answered or close, though some key contract holdouts are still lingering over everything.
Here are the top 10 takeaways from the final week of the preseason, including a complicated quarterback situation in New England:
New England Patriots
It’s pretty hard to argue that Jacoby Brissett deserves to start over Drake Maye.
Maye, the third overall pick of the NFL Draft, is clearly the more talented option. And the production in the preseason really wasn’t close. Brissett struggled badly over the preseason while Maye looked pretty good:
Maye: 21 of 32, 192 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 86.9 passer rating
Brissett: 5 for 14, 36 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 14.6 passer rating
On top of it all, Brissett suffered a right shoulder injury Sunday, though coach Jerod Mayo said Brissett could have continued to play if he had to. New England seems committed to Brissett starting.
“He’s our second-best quarterback on our roster right now,” Mayo said of Maye after Sunday night’s game, via NBC Sports Boston.
Anyone can see that’s not true, but the Patriots are also likely wary of starting Maye in a bad offensive environment that includes a subpar offensive line. But the playmaking from Maye is evident, and it showed through again in the preseason finale.
Some preseason struggles in limited playing time shouldn’t be totally held against Brissett, a solid veteran who did a good job starting most of the season for the 2022 Cleveland Browns. He’s not getting much help with this New England team. But it’s hard to believe for anyone paying attention that Maye really is the second-best quarterback on the roster, even if it appears that Brissett will be officially named the starter this week. The bigger question might be how long the Patriots can keep Maye on the bench if Brissett’s regular season looks like his preseason.
It’s really hard to throw five interceptions in a preseason game. In fairness, it’s also hard in any NFL game to throw for 323 yards and rush for 90 more.
Trey Lance had a wild preseason finale for the Cowboys. There were some good plays but you can’t throw five interceptions in a game, even one that doesn’t count. Some of the interceptions were just awful. On top of it, Lance fumbled twice too though the Cowboys recovered both.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones insisted Lance will be on the team’s roster. Dallas traded a mid-round pick for Lance, who was the third overall pick of the draft by the 49ers in 2021, and they don’t want to waste that investment. But it’s hard to see past the mistakes and be optimistic about Lance going forward.
The Titans used starters on Sunday and it turned out to be a good thing. Will Levis ended the preseason on a good note, completing 7-of-8 passes for 117 yards. There were a lot of quick passes to running backs and play-action fakes, which should be a regular thing in the Titans’ offense this season.
Levis is in a new scheme with coach Brian Callahan, and the extra reps in the preseason weren’t bad for the second-year quarterback. He could have a good season in the offense, which should pass it a lot more. The opportunity will be there for him to show he can be the Titans’ quarterback of the future.
Falcons coach Raheem Morris stuck to his word. Rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. didn’t play in the team’s final two preseason games. That decision has been criticized, but if you consider Morris’ previous stop it shouldn’t be that surprising. Morris was with the Los Angeles Rams, who never play anyone of note in the preseason. Sean McVay doesn’t even play his QB2. Penix might have grown from extra reps in preseason but philosophically the Rams model is to protect all contributors from injury and McVay views his backup quarterback as one of the team’s important players. Morris clearly picked that up as well. At least Penix will be healthy if needed this season.
Cleveland Browns
Jameis Winston looked fine in the preseason. He completed 10-of-14 passes for 93 yards and didn’t throw an interception. In Saturday’s finale he was 6 of 9 for 63 yards. That matters because we’re again dealing with a Deshaun Watson injury situation.
Like last season, when his various injuries lingered for a long time, Watson had right shoulder soreness that kept him out of a practice last week and ultimately caused the Browns to hold him out of Saturday’s game. Presumably he’ll play in Week 1, but we didn’t see him at all in the preseason coming off season-ending shoulder surgery. Winston is at least a reasonable option, albeit one that has always comes with way too many interceptions in his NFL career. It’s just getting harder to trust that Watson will be available and effective for 17 games.
Anthony Richardson’s preseason finale had some highlights and some mistakes, most notably an easy pick-6. Richardson said it was a miscommunication between himself and tight end Kylen Granson on the play, saying they saw different things in the coverage. Colts coach Shane Steichen wasn’t worried.
“Look, guys are going to miss throws,” Steichen said, via the team’s site. “You know what I mean? I don’t care if you’re a second-year player or a 15-year vet. Guys are going to miss throws. So I don’t have any concerns with that.”
Practically speaking Richardson is still a rookie, considering he got just four games last season before a season-ending shoulder injury. He’s more prone to some mistakes, but has he showed last season and in the preseason finale, he’s capable of some fantastic plays as well.
Rookie receiver Jermaine Burton hadn’t cracked the team’s top three of the depth chart at receiver, but he’ll be hard to keep off the field.
Burton had another highlight in the preseason finale, catching a 21-yard touchdown. He had four catches for 56 yards. It was a good preseason for the third-round rookie, with eight catches for 157 yards and two touchdowns. Part of the reason he fell in the draft, and perhaps a reason he hasn’t cracked the Bengals’ top three, is that he has off-field and maturity concerns, which he addressed on the Bengals Booth Podcast.
“I could’ve been better in how I’ve been handling my business in my preseason,” Burton said, via SI.com. “I could lock in more on my details and the things that I did wrong, but it’s all about how you handle it. It’s all about what it means to you and I feel like I need to do a better job of showing how much this means to me.”
The Buccaneers might have a strong running game this season. The starters played on Friday and Rachaad White looked very good. Rookie Bucky Irving might give the team some running back depth that they didn’t have last season. He has looked good through the preseason. Also rookie center Graham Barton has been excellent in the preseason and if that carries over he could be a big boost to the running game. In the passing game, rookie Jalen McMillan has a shot to be a contributor right away and he made a fantastic leaping 28-yard catch that set up a rushing touchdown for White. The defending NFC South champs could have a strong offense again.
We finally got to see Geno Smith this preseason and the results were good. Smith, who didn’t play in the first two preseason games, got one drive on Saturday night and completed 4-of-5 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown to DK Metcalf.
It’s a brand new scheme that should be a little more wide open with coordinator Ryan Grubb. The Seahawks might still have offensive line issues, and that’s a big reason Smith wasn’t quite as good in 2023 as he was in 2022. But if the line is competent then Smith and the Seahawks might have a pretty nice season.
San Francisco 49ers
It’s a little strange why Brock Purdy played as much as he did in the preseason. He played again in the finale on Saturday night and got hit a few times, including throwing himself at a defender to try and make a tackle after a deflected interception.
It’s not like the 49ers really need to see Purdy get extra reps. They know what they have by now. Fortunately he didn’t suffer an injury. The 49ers did see defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos suffer a knee injury which has him week to week, according to Kyle Shanahan, and defensive end Leonard Floyd is day to day with a knee injury.
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