Tag: NFL preseason

2021 NFL preseason schedule by team

The NFL released their 2021 preseason schedule. Here is a look at every preseason schedule by team.

The NFL released their preseason schedule for the 2021 exhibition campaign.

There are some tepid Super Bowl rematches, such as the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs opening up the first official week of preseason.

The Dallas Cowboys take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in a long-awaited Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.

To accommodate for a 17-game schedule, the league borrowed from the four-game preseason — kind like daylight savings time — and added that extra game on the back end of the schedule to create a 17-game schedule.

NFC teams get two home preseason games this year. The AFC gets just one.

Here is a look at every team’s preseason schedule with all times Eastern.

Panthers also discussing preseason joint practices with the Ravens

According to a report by Joe Person at the Athletic, they’re in talks.

The Panthers have finalized a couple joint practice dates with one team and are in talks with another. Yesterday, head coach Matt Rhule confirmed that his team will hold two joint practices with the Colts before their preseason matchup in August – the first of the year.

Apparently, Carolina is also looking for a few with the Ravens, their next opponent on the preseason schedule. According to a report by Joe Person at the Athletic, they’re in talks.

“The Panthers might have joint practices the following week, as well. They’re talking with the Ravens about practicing together in Charlotte or Spartanburg heading into their Aug. 21 exhibition at Bank of America Stadium, according to a source.”

Rhule has one of the youngest teams in the league, so it makes sense that he wants to get as many live reps as possible this summer.

Baltimore should provide a challenge that few teams around the NFL can match. In Lamar Jackson they have a former MVP and one of the sport’s most dynamic athletes. The Ravens have won at least 10 games every year since they drafted him and since John Harbaugh took over as coach in 2008, they’ve had a losing record only one season.

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NFL to have a 3-stage roster cut process during 2021 offseason

The NFL will allow roster cuts to be done through a 3-stage process this offseason.

The NFL is moving back to an offseason that will involve multiple roster cuts — three to be exact. This news comes after owners met to approved of having 90-men rosters to start training camp.

The first set of cuts, which will involve a reduction of five players (putting the roster at 85), will take place on Aug. 17, three days after the Jags’ first preseason game against the Cleveland Browns. Afterward, there will be another reduction by five (moving the roster to 80 players) on Aug. 24, a day after the Jags’ second preseason game against the New Orleans Saints, which is on a Monday night.

Lastly, the final roster deduction, which will be the biggest will take place on Aug. 31, two days after the Jags’ final preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys. At that point, the rosters must be trimmed down from 80 players to the final 53.

Of course, with the Jags’ first regular season game set for Sept. 12 against the Houston Texans, the Jags will have 12 days between final cuts to get their roster right. Additionally, they will be No. 1 in the waiver wire, which will give them a chance to add some of the best players who are released during final roster cuts.

PFF ranks Lions’ Jared Goff as a bottom-tier QB

With the offseason in full bloom, PFF came out with their lastest quarterback rankings and pegged Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff at the bottom

Upon his hire, General manager Brad Holmes was thrown right into the fire, dealing with longtime Lion and hometown hero Matthew Stafford not wanting any part in what might turn out to be a long time rebuild. Holmes was able to construct a trade with his former team, the Los Angles Rams, that would send Stafford to the west coast, and in return, the Lions got a slew of draft picks that might help jump-start the rebuild.

The trade also brought in a player Holmes was quite familiar with and hopes that maybe a change of scenery is exactly what the doctor ordered. Jared Goff might get overlooked as nothing more than a thrown-in, but if you asked Holmes or Dan Campbell, that couldn’t be further from the truth. They believe Goff is exactly the type of quarterback with the grit and toughness to bring victories to Detroit.

Unfortunately, many analysts see Goff as nothing more than a bridge quarterback and felt they made a mistake by passing on Justin Fields, who went to the Chicago Bears four picks later in the 2021 draft. With record projections not in the Lions’ favor, Detroit should get the opportunity to draft their quarterback heading into the 2022 draft if they find one they love.

PFF recently put a preseason list ranking out all 32 QB starters ahead of the season. Unfortunately, they are not feeling the love for Goff, ranking him as the 26th best quarterback putting him in the same tier as Drew Lock, Jalen Hurts, and Sam Darnold.

A fresh start does players wonders, especially at the quarterback position. It also doesn’t hurt when you get a vote of confidence and your team takes Penei Sewell to protect you over some highly sought-after first-round quarterbacks. The Rams were third in the league in play-action pass attempts and tied for fifth in screen pass attempts. It will be imperative that the Lions help their QB and design an offense around what he’s comfortable with. Goff has a top-five passing grade when he has a clean pocket, is in rhythm and targets intermediate throws 10-19 yards downfield. He struggled when targeting 20-plus yard throws in the same scenario, earning the 29th-ranked passing grade out of 36 qualifying quarterbacks.

Getting the ball downfield in 2020 was a struggle, whether it was missed throws or negatively graded throws. This is probably why Goff led the league in passing yards on completions of 5 yards or less a season ago. The Lions seem to be building around Goff, and this is exactly what he needs to get his confidence back up so he can play at a high level again.

It is easy to bash on Goff, considering what happened last year after getting benched towards the ends of the season and into the playoffs, and most of the numbers fall in line with adequate quarterback standards. On top of PFF numbers, his ANY/A (adjusted net yards per attempt, along with touchdowns, interceptions, and sacks mixed in) was 6.27, good for 22nd in the league.

The front office has shown their confidence in Goff and doing their part in trying to surround him with valuable pieces to make sure he is given the best chance possible to succeed. Goff is also putting in the work so far this offseason creating the relationship necessary with his teammates.

Even though the rankings reflect Goff as a below-average quarterback and from accounts that may prove accurate, this front office and coaching staff are enamored by the young So-Cal kid and feel he can succeed in Detroit.

Other notables: Aaron Rodgers (3), Matthew Stafford (11), Kirk Cousins (14), Justin Fields (25).

Vikings’ 2021 preseason schedule released

See the Minnesota Vikings’ 2021 NFL preseason schedule. Which game are you looking forward to?

Minnesota has one of the hardest 2021 regular-season schedules in the NFL, so the preseason will make for a good time to get ready.

The Vikings have three preseason games before the regular season gets underway. Last year, the league canceled the preseason amid the coronavirus pandemic.

It will be interesting to see how the preseason pans out this year.  The preseason slate is a key time for draftees and undrafted free agents to make good impressions and land on the roster for 2021. Among the draft class is QB Kellen Mond, who has a chance to show Vikings fans what he can do in his first NFL action.

Here is what the Vikings have to deal with in the preseason:

With no preseason games, Broncos might practice once or twice at stadium

The Broncos might have one or two practices at Empower Field at Mile High this summer.

With no preseason games this summer, the Broncos might hold a practice or two at Empower Field at Mile High to give young players a better feel of what it’s like to play in an NFL game.

“We may practice a time or two at the stadium to get them adjusted to being in a big stadium, an NFL stadium, although it would be empty,” coach Vic Fangio said on July 28. “A lot of those guys — all of them — you can’t evaluate them totally until it’s live action. Who can tackle, who’s willing to tackle and who can break tackles, it will be an adjustment for everybody.”

Denver’s young offense would have benefited from preseason games but the Broncos will have to make do without them, just like every other team.

“I always remember as a rookie it was important for me to see other helmets and not just Bronco helmets, but to see other helmets to get used to and realize, hey, they are now in the NFL,” general manager John Elway said on July 28. “With our young team, that doesn’t help us.

“I was hoping for a couple preseason games just because we are so young on the offensive side to get to see somebody else. We’re going to have to deal with it. Today’s world is adjusting, so we’ll adjust to that.”

Instead of preseason, Denver will have a longer-than-usual training camp leading up to a season-opening clash against the Titans on Sept. 14.

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Lack of NFL preseason games come with negatives and positives for players

With the Baltimore Ravens being among the favorites to win Super Bowl LV, any perceived issues earn a little extra look. And as the NFL has canceled preseason games and in-person minicamps due to COVID-19, it would make sense that the lack of …

With the Baltimore Ravens being among the favorites to win Super Bowl LV, any perceived issues earn a little extra look. And as the NFL has canceled preseason games and in-person minicamps due to COVID-19, it would make sense that the lack of contact before Week 1 would be a concern. But the Ravens believe they’ll be better off for it.

As the coronavirus pandemic forced teams to be socially distant this offseason, training camp is the first and only time players will be on the field in front of coaches and with all their teammates. Teams also aren’t allowed to be in pads until Aug. 17, and even then, only for 14 practices. That’s not a lot of time to prepare for the regular season. And beyond what it means for bubble players just trying to make the team, the lack of meaningful contact before Week 1 has its positives and negatives.

We’ve certainly see sloppy play from some players early in the regular season every year. While there are a ton of reasons for that, it often happens if a player missed a lot of training camp or they didn’t get as much in-game action in the preseason. The result is often slower play, less physicality, and an all-around worse performance until the player gets back up to speed after a few games.

No matter how much a player practices this offseason, they’re going to be woefully short in the in-game reps and contact they’d normally get. For some, it won’t impact their performance come Week 1 and they’ll be just as great as their prime last year. For others, they’ll be a shadow of their former selves for a few weeks until they can get back in the flow. Coach John Harbaugh opened up a bit about the opposing sensibilities in this unusual offseason.

“We’ll always try to find a way to keep our players as healthy and safe as we can. “That’s the right thing to do, ‘A,’ and ‘B,’ it’s beneficial to the team. We have a common interest there,” Harbaugh said. “Secondly, we have to be ready to play. You can’t put a team out there unprepared. Football is a tackling and a blocking sport, so we are going to have to find a way to get that tackling and blocking done in practice against one another to the level that we need to, to be ready to play the game against the Browns and all the other teams we are playing in September.”

For all the potential negatives, there are some serious positives. The fewer hits players receive, the less banged up they are rolling into the regular season. That can be an attractive option for teams like the Ravens, who believe they’ll be in contention for Super Bowl LV. That’s especially the case for a Baltimore team that has been plagued with big injuries before the regular season over the last five years. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson specifically noted the players’ health when asked for his feelings about the lack of preseason games this year.

“Our guys will be going into the regular season safely,” Jackson said. “No little nick-ups, injuries or anything like that will occur from preseason games. I’m cool with it.”

Ravens strength and conditioning coach Steve Saunders looked at it from a training perspective and agreed with Jackson’s sentiments.

“I think that the training effect is that guys who would have gotten banged-up, jacked-up a little bit from preseason games, are not. And I would expect guys to go into the first game in better shape – stronger, faster, better conditioned,” Saunders said. “We’re going to have plenty of contact; we’re Ravens. But after that first game, might they be a little more sore than a regular Week 1? Yes, potentially, but I think in the long run, we are going to be ramped-up and ready for the season. I think it’ll be a positive for us.

This year, all 53 players on all 32 teams will have that same hurdle in front of them. It’ll be up to how they prepare with the time given them in training camp that will determine how successful each team ends up being.

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What we know about the Jets’ 2020 training camp schedule

Here is what we know about the Jets’ 2020 training camp schedule.

Jets training camp is going to be a completely different experience in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Jets’ rookies arrived on July 21, while the veterans showed up on July 28. All players had to have two negative tests for COVID-19 before being allowed in the training facility. The players will continue to be tested every day for two straight weeks, dating back to Aug. 1.

Once all the players tested negative for COVID-19 twice, they could begin taking physicals and participating in team activities on Aug. 1. Beginning on Aug. 3, the players start their acclimation period that runs through Aug. 11. It’s basically an extended ramp-up period for players to build up their strength and conditioning.

On Aug. 12, the first non-pads practice opens up, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini. That gradual ramp-up period will run through Aug. 16. On Aug. 17, the Jets and all 31 other teams can begin padded practices. Those will go until Sept. 6 when teams start to prepare for their Week 1 matchups. For the Jets, they’ll be up in Buffalo in the first week of the regular season.

There will be no preseason games in 2020, either. So the first time the Jets will be able to line up against another team will be in Week 1 against the Bills. Overall, it’s a 48-day training camp in order to get the players ready to go for Week 1.

Broncos make it official: No preseason games in 2020

The Broncos have confirmed they won’t play any preseason games this summer.

As expected, the Denver Broncos — and every other NFL team — won’t play any preseason games this summer.

The news was expected but is now official after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed the news in a letter to fans on Monday. After Goodell’s announcement, the Broncos removed the preseason games on the schedule on their official website.

The league had originally planned to have teams play two games and later proposed one-game schedules but the NFLPA held firm with their desire to have no preseason games this year.

The players’ union wanted a longer training camp period with no preseason games to give players more time to get in shape before the regular season.

The Broncos were originally scheduled to play the 49ers (Aug. 15), Bears (Aug. 22), Rams (Aug. 29) and Cardinals (Sept. 3) in preseason. Fans who had tickets to those games will get refunds or future credit.

After preseason, Denver will trim the roster from 90 players down to 53 players (here’s our 53-man roster prediction). The Broncos might also trade a few players as the roster cuts deadline draws closer.

The Broncos will face the Titans on Monday Night Football in Week 1.

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NFL makes it official: Preseason games are canceled

There will be no preseason games in the NFL for 2020.

It was all over but the formal announcement and that came to the 32 NFL teams Monday. There will be no preseason games for the 2020 season.

The preseason has been called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league sent a memo to teams that stated: “To minimize the risk of travel and ensure that the regular season begins in a timely manner, the NFL has determined that no preseason games will be played this year.”