The exhibitions are over, and it’s about time to get some real football that counts going in the NFL!
Don’t take that the wrong way though, because the NFL preseason is important and does serve a purpose. It’s not just about practicing schemes and implementing systems for the regular season. It gives players an opportunity to make a career and try to make a roster. It’s the guys that we don’t hear about who need the preseason to try and secure a future, however brief it might be in this league.
The final cuts from 75 players to 53 players to start the season will begin today and continue up to the start of the regular season next Thursday for Week 1 of the season.
That means that there are still 21 players from each team who participated in all of training camp and the preseason games will be going home. Some will be picked up on other teams, some won’t. Some might have to wait until halfway through the regular season to hear the phone ring. That’s the life of an NFL player sometimes.
All 32 teams in the NFL played their final preseason game on Thursday night, so that part of the year is done and over with.
There were plenty of storylines to watch throughout, mostly centered on the starting quarterbacks of teams, of which we still do not know some of them like the Jets and Raiders, though that should be made public in the coming days.
We saw the Eagles go with Michael Vick over Nick Foles in the new Chip Kelly Era. We saw a rookie quarterback in E.J Manuel look good until a knee injury sidelined him. Now, we aren’t sure when Manuel will return, paving the way for an undrafted rookie to start of the Bills in Week 1. That is the first time in decades that will happen.
We’ve seen big names on new teams look weird in the uniforms that put on. Wes Welker in Bronco orange? Percy Harvin in Seattle green? Steven Jackson in Falcons red?
It’s true, so we better get used to it, at least for this year because by the time the 2014 season rolls around it will look a lot different as well.
The Broncos and Ravens get ready to kick off the regular season starting on Thursday night, and from there the rest of the league opens up on Sunday.
So with that we say, are you fready for some football?