There was a time, not too many seasons ago, when National Football League teams played four preseason games. Routinely, in those days, teams used the third preseason game as a final tuneup for the players they figured would be in action when the season opened for real in a couple weeks.

Not anymore.

The three preseason games schedule has shifted the way teams play each of the preseason weeks. Teams also participate in more joint practices against opponents, an activity that got so heated last week in Oxnard that the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints were both fined a half million dollars.

On Saturday, these two squads square off again in a preseason game. Could be fun.

The teams highest rated in odds to play in Super Bowl LXI have one thing in common, a proven franchise quarterback to lead their offenses. The Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs are among a number of teams that have had their starting quarterbacks in bubble wrap during the preseason. Others, like the Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders, will be looking to find their starting quarterback in the final preseason tuneup.

It's true that the Vikings have named Kyler Murray their starter for when they open their regular season at home against the Green Bay Packers, but you know he is on a short leash with one-time first round draft selection J.J. McCarthy on the roster.

McCarthy has to pay for his own meals in Minnesota, no adoring fan is saying he’ll cover his tab out of gratitude for what the one-time Michigan Wolverines starter has done to the Vikings prospects. McCarthy was selected with the 10th overall draft pick in 2024 and Minnesota signed veteran Sam Darnold to mentor the kid. Before that arrangement got in practice, McCarthy was lost for the season with an injury.

Darnold went on to lead the Vikings to 14 wins, but when the season was over the Vikings organization had a decision to make. They decided that McCarthy was their future franchise quarterback and Darnold’s play on the field had priced him out of the back-up salary grade. So, they kept McCarthy and Darnold ended up in Seattle where he led the Seahawks to another 14-win regular season and then capped his 2025 campaign with a Super Bowl win.

Meanwhile, McCarthy has struggled both on the field and with injuries and the Vikings last season dropped to last place in the NFC North Division. The Vikings have a very tense quarterback room.

Another team that spent money that got them in trouble while searching for a franchise quarterback is the Atlanta Falcons. In 2024, they backed the Brink’s truck up to sign Kirk Cousins away from the Vikings … then within a matter of weeks spent their first pick in the draft on Washington Huskies Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., taking the signal caller with the 8th overall selection.

That move threw a wrench into the new relationship between Cousins and the Falcons. Instead of spending the eighth pick in the draft to find an athlete to assist Cousins with his new team, Atlanta opted to draft his would-be replacement. It wasn’t long before Cousins was getting paid by more than one team to ply his skills in his new home, Las Vegas.

As for Penix, he has had seemingly more injuries than wins during his two seasons in Atlanta and has now lost his starting job to one time Dolphin Tua Tagovailoa. If you order eggs at the Falcons cafe they will come scrambled no matter how you requested they be prepared.

As for Cousins, the Raiders apparently acquired him to lead their franchise this season while schooling the overall number one pick in last April’s draft, Fernando Mendoza. But first-year head coach Klint Kubiak has not yet named his opening day starter. Holding out the possibility of the Raiders moving right into the Mendoza era.

Not likely.

My money would be on Cousins behind center when the Raiders open their season at home against the Miami Dolphins. Miami, by the way, after departed ways with their one-time top draft choice, Tagovailoa, who they selected while Justin Herbert was still available, are now banking on Malik Willis. He was a third-round draft choice of the Tennessee Titans in 2022.

After two years with the team that drafted him and one season in Green Bay, the Dolphins went after him like they figured Willis was a franchise quarterback. New head coach Jeff Hafley named him the team’s starter at the beginning of training camp. How is that going to work out?

The Dolphins are the team with the worst projection on win totals this season. Miami is pegged at four wins give or take a half-game.

Yep, finding a franchise quarterback is step one in building a winning NFL franchise. Those that have succeed, and those that haven’t don’t.