The National Football League completes their first full week of preseason action on Sunday with a pair of games. There is no Monday night game this week and today’s matchups have two home teams with high hopes this season and a pair of visitors that could be inclined to work for wins in the preseason knowing how hard it will be for them to notch victories once the games begin to count next month.
The home teams today with reasons to look forward to the regular season are the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Chargers. The teams that appear headed into a tough year this season are the Soldier Field visitors, the Miami Dolphins, and the team playing in Southern California, the New Orleans Saints.
The Saints lost their starting quarterback, Derek Carr, to a retirement caused by a series of crippling injuries. The new head coach Kellen Moore signed on with the Saints thinking Carr would be his signal caller. Moore was the architect of the offense last season for the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles.
He’ll have a lot tougher time generating an offense this season in New Orleans.
The years when the Saints were directed by the brilliant Drew Brees are long gone, and the serviceable talent of Carr is also now missing from the Saints arsenal. What that leaves New Orleans with is a quarterback competition without a proven starter. Spencer Rattler has been named the starter for Sunday’s preseason opener while the competition for the regular season starting role is still up in the air with Jake Haener and rookie Tyler Shough vying to win the job.
Shough was a second round pick, 40th overall selection, by the Saints in this year’s draft. He had three college stops beginning in 2018 with the Oregon Ducks. Subsequent stops included the Texas Tech Red Raiders and Louisville Cardinals. Haener is beginning his third pro season and Rattler is in his second.
Picking a quarterback that can lead the Saints to a winning season from this group is a little like preparing for an Indy car race and noticing the three choices of vehicles in your garage are a Volkswagen, Mini Cooper and Fiat.
Still, this is the preseason, so the Saints could bring all they have to offer while the Chargers could be content on working more people into their game-day lineup. The Chargers are also confronted with one major adjustment to be made to their offensive line. Jim Harbaugh viewed his offensive front one of the best in the league at giving Justin Herbert time to throw and runners room to run. But those plans were hampered this week when one of the best left tackles in the game, Rashawn Slater, was injured in practice and lost for the season. Slater suffered a torn patellar tendon that required surgery and put him out of action for the season.
Joe Alt, a Chargers first round draft pick two years ago out of Notre Dame, will be moved into the left tackle spot and who will replace him on the other side of the line is still up for grabs. Still, the Chargers are a top-notch organization with a coach that knows how to get the most out of his players. We expect the Chargers to advance to the postseason, but a loss of their best offensive lineman adds a hurtle to them winning it all.
The Miami Dolphins may be a good preseason team and want to excite their fan base with some meaningless summer wins. But when it comes time to compete against the Buffalo Bills in their AFC East Division, they seem to be losing ground to their primary competition. On Sunday they are in Chicago to meet the Bears, who are brimming with confidence based on the addition of new head coach Ben Johnson and the expected development of second-year quarterback Caleb Williams.
Last season, the Bears competed in a division that sent three teams to the postseason, the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. It is difficult to see Chicago could leap-frog all three of those formidable foes this season but wedging between a couple of them is not out of the question.
Four teams in action today, two with bright futures and two appearing in trouble. That doesn’t offer any real edge for a preseason wager.