NFL preseason: 5 things to watch in Week 1, including Shedeur Sanders' start and the J.J. McCarthy era beginning
Shedeur Sanders is starting in a prime time preseason game, because of course
Browns at Panthers, 7 p.m. ET Friday
Would ya look at that. The stars have aligned for the perfect game to get people interested in the NFL preseason, with Browns fifth-round rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders getting the nod to start their opener against the Panthers. Sanders has been a lightning rod for a few years dating back to his play at Colorado, and now he's going to get the first crack at playing quarterback for the rudderless Browns this season. This decision is largely because of injuries to Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett, but it still will give him a chance to start to separate himself heading into the middle of training camp. Sanders hasn't practiced much with the starters this preseason, which is to be expected as a fifth-round pick, and now can make his mark.
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It's important for everyone to remain level-headed about this. Neither a good nor bad performance really means much here — Pickett absolutely torched the preseason prior to his last season starting in Pittsburgh. However, it's a start and it's something for Sanders fans to latch onto because he probably won't be playing much during the regular season. The biggest piece of intrigue here is if he can play well enough to surpass the third round-rookie Gabriel on the depth chart moving forward.
The J.J. McCarthy era is here
Texans at Vikings, 4 p.m. ET Saturday
Mulligan. After being a top-10 pick for the Vikings in 2024, J.J. McCarthy tore his meniscus, resulting in him missing his entire rookie season while Sam Darnold helped take the Vikings to the playoffs. Now, it's the McCarthy show and he's got a chance to have a breakout season in his first year with the reins in his hands. To help his cause, the Vikings did go out and completely revamp the interior offensive line and give themselves, on paper, one of the best offensive lines in the entire league. Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison (minus the first three games) are still here and Kevin O'Connell will put McCarthy in good spots.
It's an interesting place for McCarthy to be in his first year as a starter. On one hand, McCarthy probably should have the expectations of a rookie. On the other, everyone knows if he's good enough, the Vikings may be able to go on a run deep into the playoffs. No pressure. He might have the biggest spotlight of any young quarterback in the league with what this team feels like they can accomplish.
Chip Kelly makes his return to the NFL
Raiders at Seahawks, 7 p.m. ET Thursday
After nine seasons away from the NFL, including a stop as the head coach at UCLA and calling plays for Ohio State, Chip Kelly is back at the professional level. Kelly's last stint in the NFL came as the head coach of the 49ers in 2016, which coincided with an unimaginative offense and one of the worst defenses in the league. While college football is certainly a different game than the NFL, Kelly seems to be rejuvenated and had UCLA moving in the right-ish direction before taking over the Buckeyes' offense and winning a national championship.
Now, Kelly is in Las Vegas running the Raiders offense for the newly hired Pete Carroll. They certainly needed an upgrade at offensive play-caller with how poorly they performed last year and it'll be interesting to see what Kelly plans to do with his new offense. Geno Smith, Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty are a nice little trio to get things moving, but they'll need Kelly to be the offensive genius he's billed to be in order to keep pace with the other teams in the division. Kelly has been a centerpiece figure of the last two decades of college and pro football, now he's back and has to get this Raiders offense moving in a hurry.
The first step for Travis Hunter's quest to do the unthinkable
Steelers at Jaguars, 7 p.m. ET Saturday
Modern NFL fans have their version of a renaissance man that hasn't been seen in a very, very long time. Jaguars rookie Travis Hunter appears to be headed toward doing the unthinkable: be a near full-time player on both sides of the ball. Right now, Hunter has been running with the starters on offense while rotating in on defense, but his skill level at cornerback is all the talk in Jacksonville. He simply might be too good at that position to not start at cornerback, but the Jaguars will get a first glimpse at the feasibility of Hunter's two-way goals in their preseason opener.
It's unknown how many snaps Hunter will play this weekend, but this is legitimately the most fascinating rookie of this era of football. There's a long way to go in terms of figuring out if an NFL player can play significant snaps on offense and defense, but the fact that he's even talented enough to try makes him an all-time prospect. Even in the preseason, this is going to be something worth carving out time for, just from a spectacle standpoint.
Anthony Richardson's last chance
It seems like the Colts are on their last legs with this whole Anthony Richardson thing and now he finds himself in a quarterback battle for his job … against Daniel Jones. Truthfully, it's a little unclear what exactly Jones is supposed to provide that Richardson doesn't already, so if he just can handle business in camp and during the preseason he should at least get one more shot to be the Week 1 starter for the Colts.
The book on Richardson is the same as it's always been. He's got all the physical talent in the world, sees the field well enough, but his accuracy has just been all over the place. If he can finally find a way to increase his completion percentage and scale back some of the deep passing attempts, there's room for him to continue as the Colts' starting quarterback — but the clock's been ticking and every single rep, preseason included, will help determine his future.
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