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During the last pre-season, Sean McVay tried something new: he cleared all his faults for the four pre-season games. This unprecedented decision caused some skepticism: would the Los Angeles Rams not regret getting rid of rust before the real action? Would quarterback Jared Goff be out of sync with his receivers? But McVay had already determined that preparatory football was simply not worth the risk of injury.
The Rams, of course, proved that worries about missing the pre-season were exaggerated: Los Angeles won their first eight games, finished 13-3 and won the Super Bowl. They were also among the healthiest teams in the league. According to the adjusted statistics of the Football Outsider matches, the Rams were the fourth team in good health. They finished first in 2017 and in 2016. Whatever their medical team in Los Angeles, it is worth its weight in health insurance premiums. McVay has the same strategy of resting starters this season.
It appears that other NFL teams have taken note of it. Thursday night marked the beginning of the third week of the NFL pre-season, which is generally the beginning of the teams, often well before the third quarter. But Thursday's action saw many more saves than starters, and many of the first players who managed to get to the field left early.
In Cincinnati, quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Eli Manning were eliminated before the end of the first quarter (it's not a bad thing we had more than Daniel Jones). In Philadelphia, Carson Wentz and Lamar Jackson have never seen the field. In Miami, the Jaguars put Nick Foles on the bench early in the second quarter, limiting his entire pre-season time with a new team to just 10 pass attempts. And in Winnipeg, where the Raiders and Packers played, almost everyone was sitting: Green Bay put 33 players on the bench and Oakland most of the time threw gums.
To be fair to both teams, the sitting position of their starters did not seem to be part of a more ambitious strategy of resting players for the pre-season. Aaron Rodgers same came out wearing pads before the start of the match. The Raiders and Packers chose to play safety only after turf problems In the end zones (designed for poles used in Canadian football), the team was led to reduce the pitch to 80 yards. Rather than risk something going wrong, both teams forced their stars to ride the pine.
But even that is a remarkable step: it means that Rodgers, who sat in Weeks 1 and 2, will have no action at stake in Matt LaFleur's new offense before the start of the season, assuming he sits in the fourth pre-season game, as usual. It also means that Derek Carr will have no chance to form links with Antonio Brown, who was also seen in the pads (and, most importantly, a headset). While both teams seem intent on playing their starters, you wonder if they would have been so promising if the Rams had not proved that the pre-season was not really important.
Of course, not all teams are up for grabs, with Dolphins, Redskins, Falcons, Patriots and Panthers receiving shots until at least the middle of the second quarter. But a handful of these teams paid the price Jordan Reed suffered a concussion, as it did JJ Receiver D.J. Chark. And Caroline's quarterback, Cam Newton, has left his team's game against the Patriots after suffering a foot injury:
Even before this game, Newton had been sacked twice. The former most valuable player of the NFL season has been trapped in injuries after a shoulder illness limited his efficiency last season. We do not know yet if his foot injury is serious, but it is clear that he should never have been on the ground first.
Even the Packers, after having rested almost everyone, could not completely avoid the virus of the injury: the defensive lineman in the first round, Rashan Gary, victim of an unspecified injury.
The NFL has played with the idea of ​​shortening the pre-season for years. After the absence of the pre-season Rams last year and the last round of games played Thursday night, it has never been easier to reduce the charade in half.
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