Tag: NFL preseason

Broncos won’t play in NFL’s Hall of Fame Game this summer

Broncos great Randy Gradishar will be enshrined in Canton this summer, but the Broncos won’t play in the Hall of Fame Game.

The Denver Broncos will have one former player enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer, but the team won’t be featured in the league’s annual Hall of Fame Game.

The Chicago Bears will face the Houston Texans in the the first game of the preseason on Thursday, Aug. 1 in Canton, Ohio.

The Bears have three players — return specialist Devin Hester, defensive lineman Steve McMichael and pass rusher Julius Peppers — set to be enshrined. The Texans, meanwhile, have wide receiver Andre Johnson as the franchise’s first-ever Hall of Famer.

After the Hall of Fame Game, the 2024 class will be enshrined on Saturday, Aug. 3. Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar was elected to this year’s class as a senior candidate.

Denver played the Atlanta Falcons in the Hall of Fame Game in 2019, kicking off the preseason with a 14-10 win. This year, the Broncos will have a set of three preseason games beginning the week of Aug. 5.

Follow the Broncos Wire Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

[vertical-gallery id=620142]

5 players whose fantasy football stock is rising after the preseason

These five players are on the rise after a strong preseason.

One of the dangers of holding your fantasy football draft too early is that player value can change dramatically during training camp and the preseason. While situations like injuries, free-agent signings, and surprise retirements can move the needle, this article will instead focus on five players that improved their stock by performing well in July and August.

Seahawks QB Drew Lock discusses the benefits of preseason play

Lock understands that the quality reps he worked through this month will only help him when and if his number is called this season.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock tallied quite a few reps in the NFL preseason. Playing with poise, Lock recorded just one interception through 55 total pass attempts in three games played.

Operating within offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s scheme, Lock’s preseason stats shows that he’ll be a serviceable second option if starting quarterback Geno Smith suffers an injury or underperforms. While the moniker “it’s just the preseason” might hold true for some, Lock understands that the quality reps he worked through this month will only help him when and if his number is called this season.

(AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Lock spoke with the media after Saturday’s loss to Green Bay with a quality reflection. He said he’s very confident in his ability to run the offense barring anything bizarre. Check out his sentiments in the video below.

More Seahawks Wire stories

4 potential surprise roster cuts for the Seahawks

Initial 53-man roster projection after preseason

Seattle Seahawks 2023 roster cut down tracker

How former Alabama players performed in Week 3 of NFL Preseason

A handful of former Alabama football players saw game action during Week 3 of the NFL Preseason. Roll Tide Wire takes a look at how each of them performed.

Week 3 of the NFL preseason kicked off last Thursday night. Over the last few days, a number of former Alabama football players have seen game action. Although the games do not count against a team’s win-loss record, it does provide valuable experience for younger players or players who are competing for a roster spot.

Alabama has a plethora of former players around the league and others who are continuing to push for a spot on an NFL roster.

Roll Tide Wire takes a closer look at how former Alabama football players performed during Week 3 of the NFL Preseason.

Two former Badgers make PFF’s 2023 NFL All-Preseason Team

An honor for two former Badgers:

The NFL preseason schedule concluded this weekend, leading into the final stretch of the offseason until games start September 7. The two-week period until Lions vs Chiefs open the season is one full of roster cuts and final moves before each team advances with a 53-man group.

Numerous Wisconsin Badgers are firmly on NFL rosters entering the season. But many remain on the roster bubble. If those don’t make the 53-player cut, a practice squad is the next hope to stick around during the season.

Related: Predicting every Big Ten team’s 2023 wins and losses, final record and the conference champ

Two former Badgers, both unestablished in the NFL up to this point, have made headlines all preseason as two players to drastically improve their stock entering the year. Those players are Steelers OLB Nick Herbig and Jaguars OT Cole Van Lanen.

ProFootballFocus put together an All-Preseason team and included both Herbig and Van Lanen in the group:

Herbig registered four sacks and six quarterback pressures in 44 pass-rushing snaps according to the service. Meanwhile, Van Lanen has been one of PFF’s top-graded OTs during the entire period.

Herbig is a lock to make the Steelers’ roster after his play after they selected him in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Van Lanen figured to be a bubble player, though his play in the preseason may have locked up his roster spot.

Dan Campbell explains why the Lions didn’t play starters at all in the preseason

Lions head coach Dan Campbell explains why he didn’t play Detroit’s starters at all in the preseason

Unless you were at Detroit Lions training camp, you haven’t seen Jared Goff, Aidan Hutchinson or any of the team’s starters in action yet in 2023. Head coach Dan Campbell elected to keep all the starters, as well as some key reserves, in street clothes on the sidelines for the team’s three preseason games.

Campbell was asked about the philosophy of not playing the starters in the preseason and the merits of not risking critical injuries versus getting game reps. He cited the physical nature of the Lions’ practices and the joint practice sessions with the Giants and Jaguars as key factors in the decision.

“For me, it was always going to be about — the nature of the way we practice,” Campbell said. “We’re pretty physical, I think relative to most teams in the league. And we had two joint practices, two teams that we had joint practices with that were going to be pretty physical.

To me, that was — those were going to serve as building blocks to get our core (starters) ready. Just knowing where we were this game at (preseason finale vs. the Panthers) relative to playing K.C. (the Chiefs in Week 1), at that point you’re under two weeks, I just didn’t feel like it was worth the risk.”

Campbell did acknowledge that several veteran starters did ask to get in some preseason action.

“Oh yeah, we got some of those guys,” Campbell said with a proud smile. He broke down the ripple effects of playing one starter and how it would lead to playing all starters, something that he just wasn’t comfortable doing.

“It’s either all or nothing in that regard, particularly offensively.”

The third-year coach did say,

“I feel good about what we did.”

6 studs and 2 duds from Jaguars’ 31-18 win vs. Dolphins

Which Jaguars players stood out most on Saturday night?

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ final tune up before the 2023 regular season begins in September was another resounding success. The starting offense was firing on all cylinders, the defense held the Miami Dolphins in check, and the Jaguars finished August with an undefeated preseason record for just the second time in franchise history.

Now comes the hard part when the Jaguars will cut their roster down from 90 players to 53 before the 4 p.m. ET deadline on Tuesday.

With tough decisions coming regarding Jacksonville’s active roster and depth chart, here are the six players who stood out most Saturday against the Dolphins and two players who didn’t have their best night:

Doug Pederson on Jaguars offense: ‘That’s what we wanted to see’

Doug Pederson didn’t need to see anything else from the Jaguars starting offense after their first two drives against the Dolphins.

Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Pederson planned to keep the starting offense in for an entire half against the Miami Dolphins in a preseason game Saturday night. After two drives, he’d seen enough.

“They attacked it the right way,” Pederson told reporters after the game. “That’s what we wanted to see as an offense. That’s what I wanted to see was just the execution.”

On the Jaguars’ first drive of the game, they picked up 78 yards on 12 plays before a Tank Bigsby fumble at the goal line turned the ball over to the Dolphins. On Jacksonville’s next possession, the offense drove 80 yards in 12 plays and capped the drive with a touchdown.

“We talked about starting fast,” Pederson said. “We didn’t start fast against the Cowboys a couple weeks ago, so we wanted to come out and do that and we did, and unfortunately the turnover, Tank will learn from that. Something we have to eliminate, obviously, in the red zone, but [I’m] pleased with the way the offense executed those first two drives.”

Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence finished his day with eight completions on 10 attempts for 92 yards. Three of those completions were to Calvin Ridley, two to Zay Jones, two to Luke Farrell, and one to Christian Kirk.

The Jacksonville rushing attack also found plenty of success aside from Bigsby’s fumble. Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. had 39 yards on eight carries while Bigsby had 37 yards on six attempts.

“It started up front with the offensive line,” Pederson said. “I felt like we were playing on their side of the ball, on their side of the line of scrimmage for those first couple of drives. … A fourth down conversion in there, not many third downs, which is obviously good. But I thought overall this was a really good result for them, being the last preseason game, getting ready for the regular season.”

The Jaguars finished the 2022 season No. 10 both in points scored and total yards. The team has never finished No. 1 in the NFL in either statistical category.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Quick takeaways from the Lions preseason win vs. the Panthers

Quick takeaways from the Detroit Lions preseason win vs. the Carolina Panthers

The Detroit Lions put a pretty bow on the preseason with a convincing 26-17 win in Carolina over the Panthers on Friday night. The Lions prevailed despite sitting all their starters and going against much of the Panthers’ first-team offense and defense in the first half of the game.

With the on-field temp well over 100 degrees, the Lions reserves brought the heat to their hosts. It was a standout game for several players and a nice rebound from an underwhelming effort and outcome in the prior preseason game.

Here’s what stood out from the game in watching it in real-time.

Lions vs. Panthers: How to watch, listen, stream the preseason matchup

Lions vs. Panthers: How to watch, listen, stream the preseason matchup on Friday night

The exhibition schedule wraps up on Friday night when the Detroit Lions visit the Carolina Panthers in Week 3 of the 2023 preseason.

This is the final look at the Lions before the regular season, though you won’t see many Lions’ regulars in the game. While Carolina is set to play rookie QB Bryce Young and the starting offense, Detroit is once again expected to hold out nearly all players of any regular-season significance.

Detroit Lions at Carolina Panthers

Friday, August 25, 8 p.m. ET

Watch

The game will be broadcast nationally on the NFL Network. It will also air on the Detroit Lions preseason affiliate network. In Detroit, that’s FOX 2.  Jason Ross Jr., Devin Gardner and Dannie Rogers cover all the action live from Charlotte.

Listen

Dan Miller, Lomas Brown and T.J. Lang will have the radio call. The Lions radio network can be found here. The flagship station is 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit, which also includes pregame and postgame programming on many affiliates.

Stream

Fans outside of restricted local markets can stream the game via the NFL+ app. FuboTV is another option.