It’s nice to have teams on the field playing football again. It helps in the scouting process (especially with players being selected in the middle and later rounds). But I would like it more if more teams placed value in putting their front-line guys on the field.
In the first full week of the preseason, just over half of the teams didn’t put their starting quarterbacks on the field at all, figuring that there’s more value in protecting their health, rather than any benefit from letting them get some work against opponents playing at something close to regular speed.
This is understandable for the $100 million quarterbacks of the league. Many of these guys don’t need a preseason to be ready for opening day. And there is some risk that opposing defenses will do something reckless or stupid. The Raiders knocked Geno Smith out of the game on Saturday with a corner blitz. The Chargers seemed to be using a lot of blitzes against the Rams.
Nonetheless, quarterbacks are the key pieces on most teams, and 18 of the 32 teams in the first full week didn’t use their guys.
Some of these teams have younger or unproven quarterbacks. Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones, most notably. As poorly as those guys played last year, you would think they could use some reps to help them get ready for the season.
| QUARTERBACKS WHO HAVEN'T PLAYED | |
|---|---|
| Team | Player |
| ARI | Kyler Murray |
| ATL | Matt Ryan |
| BAL | Lamar Jackson |
| BUF | Josh Allen |
| CAR | Sam Darnold |
| CIN | Joe Burrow |
| CLE | Baker Mayfield |
| DAL | Dak Prescott |
| GB | Aaron Rodgers |
| IND | Carson Wentz (inj.) |
| LAC | Justin Herbert |
| LAR | Matthew Stafford |
| LV | Derek Carr |
| MIN | Kirk Cousins |
| NYG | Daniel Jones |
| PIT | Ben Roethlisberger |
| SEA | Russell Wilson |
| TEN | Ryan Tannehill |
For 14 teams, their starting quarterbacks got on the field some. Surprisingly, that included two of the very biggest names in the game: Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes (though both guys played only very briefly).
| TEAMS USING STARTING QB | |
|---|---|
| Team | Quarterback |
| Chicago | Dalton / Fields |
| Denver | Lock / Bridgewater |
| Detroit | Jared Goff |
| Houston | Tyrod Taylor |
| Jacksonville | Trevor Lawrence |
| Kansas City | Patrick Mahomes |
| Miami | Tua Tagovailoa |
| New England | Newton / Jones |
| New Orleans | Winston / Hill |
| NY Jets | Zach Wilson |
| Philadelphia | Jalen Hurts |
| San Francisco | Garoppolo / Lance |
| Tampa Bay | Tom Brady |
| Washington | Ryan Fitzpatrick |
—Ian Allan