NFL pre-season: What we’ve learned so far
Some of the best players don’t play, and some players about to be cut do. Coaches hide the bulk of their playbooks. Intensity is low.
National Football League pre-season games often bear little resemblance to the highstakes football that follows them. But that doesn’t mean that the first bunch of games Thursday night didn’t teach us something about teams, players and the season ahead. Here are some highlights.
Saquon Barkley
One Run, Millions of Believers
Barkley, the No. 2 overall selection in this year’s draft, had one run against the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night that set New York Giants fans dreaming. On the game’s first play, he took the ball from Eli Manning, briefly looked stuck, then found a hole and dashed for 39 yards.
The rest of Barkley’s runs were pedestrian. And some Penn State runners have not carried their college form over into the NFL (Blair Thomas, Ki-Jana Carter, Curtis Enis).
“Just a run, you know?” Manning told reporters. “Let’s not go berserk yet, all right?”
It may be too late. Berserk mode is already activated.
The Rams
Second string not so great
The Browns were 4-0 in the pre-season last year, and the New England Patriots were 1-3. That didn’t teach us much. But that doesn’t stop people from looking at the exhibition scores and drawing conclusions.
Most of the games Thursday night were close, but there was one exception: the Baltimore Ravens thumped the Los Angeles Rams, 33-7. Start off with the caveats: Almost no key Rams players got in the game, including quarterback Jared Goff. The signal calling was handled instead by Brandon Allen (a sixthrounder in 2016 who has had no-regular season snaps) and Sean Mannion (one NFL start in three years).
And the Ravens were playing their second pre-season game and seemed to have less rust.
The Rams had been attracting a lot of pre-season buzz after a breakthrough 11-5 season. They have some work to do when the starters begin to play.
Lamar Jackson
Dangerous legs
Jackson’s passing numbers didn’t amaze (7 for 18, 119 yards), but he got Ravens fans excited with his running game. Jackson avoided a sack, scrambled away, dodged some defenders and scored a 9-yard touchdown.
“I made a guy miss and tried to do what I do best, tried to get in the end zone,” Jackson told reporters. “It was excellent.”
For now, he is still listed third on Baltimore’s depth chart, behind Joe Flacco and Robert Griffin III.
Baker Mayfield
Quality start
Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy last season and was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. But skepticism about him remains, especially since he was joining the hapless Browns.
After one pre-season game, Cleveland fans are breathing a bit easier. Mayfield was 11 for 20 for 212 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. And the Browns beat the Giants, 20-10.
As for the other member of the heralded quarterback rookie class in action Thursday, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills was 9 for 19 for 116 yards and a touchdown — weaker numbers than his competition, Nathan Peterman (9 for 10) and A.J. McCarron (7 for 10). Sam Darnold of the New York Jets plays Friday, and Josh Rosen of the Arizona Cardinals makes his debut Saturday.
Helmet Rule
Refs know the rule
No one is quite sure how the NFL’s new rule on helmet hits will affect the season. We got a hint Thursday when Shamarko Thomas of the Indianapolis Colts was ejected after making helmet-to-helmet contact with David Moore of the Seattle Seahawks.
“I’m very disappointed,” Colts coach Frank Reich told reporters. “We don’t teach that. That was a good call, that was the appropriate call, he should have been ejected.”
Andrew Luck
He’s back
Remember him? One of the top signal-callers in the game missed all of last season with shoulder problems. Not coincidentally, the Colts were 4-12.
On Thursday, Luck started the pre-season opener, completing 6 of 9 passes for 64 yards. It was a careful start, but a welcome one for Colts fans. Ryan Tannehill also made a return after missing 2017 with a knee injury. He was 4 for 6, playing just one series for the Miami Dolphins.
Newton and Benjamin
Not so friendly anymore
Bills receiver Kelvin Benjamin stirred up a little tempest earlier in the week by disparaging his former teammate, Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, telling The Athletic that: “It was a bad fit from the get-go. You would have put me with any other quarterback, let’s be real, you know what I’m saying? Any other accurate quarterback like Rodgers or Eli Manning or Big Ben — anybody!”
Newton approached Benjamin before the Panthers-Bills game Thursday, but Benjamin showed a disinclination to chat.
“I wasn’t even trying to listen,” Benjamin told the Panthers website.
Protests
They’re not going away
It doesn’t look like the controversy over national anthem protests is over, as a handful of players knelt or raised fists again, drawing the ire of the president.