The NFL preseason is here — but your favorite star likely won’t be

No quarter-arre has passed for more yards or affected during the 2024 NFL season than the quarter of the Bengals of Cincinnati, Joe Burrow. This did what Burrow did to start the 2025 season even more remarkable Thursday evening: he actually played in a pre-season exhibition.

“I think we got 15 rehearsals tonight, so we have 15 rehearsals better,” said Burrow after the loss of opening of the cincinnati pre-season against Philadelphia.

This raised the number of pre-season shots that Burrow had played during his five seasons of the previous NFL combined, according to Pro Football Focus.

Bengals chose to play several starters in part because they were in good health and partly out of hope. After starting 0-2 in the past five of his last six seasons, the team has agreed to agree with criticism that trying to preserve the health of the pre-season of his list had slowed his preparation for the regular season.

“They only find their rhythm like week 5 of 6,” said the former quarter of the Bengals, Boomer Esiason last month. “It’s ridiculous.”

However, the change of Bengals in pre-season philosophy is not the norm of a league where the pre-season begins, but many of the biggest names will probably not. Buffalo Bills, Josh Allen’s quarterrier, the reigning MVP, will not play during the opening of the Saturday’s pre-season against the New York Giants. Jayden Daniels de Washington, recruit of the year of the NFL last season, was among the multiple starters who did not take the ground when the pre-season of Thursday in New England. Baltimore Lamar Jackson’s quarterrier has not played a pre-season shot for four years.

If key and highly appreciated players appear in pre-season, it is often during the last possible match, and not even long, because the teams largely believe that the possibility of building the pace is not large enough to prevail over the risk of injury.

Inside the league, blame or praise for the trend of reduction strongly or eliminating the pre-season workloads of Starters is often attributed to the coach of the Los Angeles Rams, Sean Mcvay, who began to hold his best players entirely during the pre-season during his second season in Los Angeles in 2018, even if the Rams started a young quarter.

Los Angeles advanced to the Super Bowl, and that the pre -season rest for key players was connected to his game during the regular season, it was enough in a copy league – where new ideas do not remain exclusive for a long time – so that others adopt the same approach.

During the pre-season 2024, 14 teams did not play them presumed for a single cliché during the first two weeks of the pre-season-in a single team in 2014, according to a comparison made last year.

“We feel confident and comfortable with the approach we adopt and we understand that it may not be for everyone,” said Mcvay in 2019.

“Everyone” included those who maintain that the construction of the rhythm during the pre-season is worth the risk of injury.

“For me, to have a sharp knife, I really have to refine it,” said the ancient quarter of the Rams, Vince Ferragamo

Mcvay and the Rams may not have put their best players on the ice during pre-season matches, if not for the rise of another trend that occurs at the same time, while franchises began to organize more and more “joint practices”. Their attraction came from the opportunity for quality rehearsals but in a more controlled melee than a game. Although a starting defense can compete against the starting offensive of his opponent in a joint practice, the tackle was often limited and the shift of the quarters was indeed prohibited.

Before making his pre-season debut last season, choice n ° 1 in the general classification Caleb Williams said he believed that pre-season representatives are always essential for anyone: a young recruit, a second year guy, [or] Third year old guy. However, this year, as a second-year guy under a new head coach in Chicago, the quarter-Arrière will not play in the opening of the Bears pre-season.

The teams are increasingly willing to attend starters because of the risk of injury which has become a subject of serious concern Thursday in Indianapolis. During a pre-season match in Baltimore, the quarter of the Anthony Richardson Colts fought a little finger in the middle of his competition to keep the starting work. However, holding an important player in a game is not a guarantee that they will enter regular health health. You just have to ask the charge, who lost the player of the Rashawn Slater offensive line to a knee injury at the end of the season during training this week.

This month, 30 of the 32 teams will play three pre -season games – only the Los Angeles Chargers and Detroit Lions, who also played in the Hall of Fame exhibition on July 31, will play more – and many have reported that they will again play starters and stars with wall, if necessary.

Jacksonville is one of the few exceptions. The jaguars should play most of the starters when opening the pre-season of Saturday against Pittsburgh, including the overall choice n ° 2 Travis Hunter and the quarter-back leaving Trevor Lawrence as a means of increasing their rehearsals after a spectacular redesign of the offseason.

“Look,” said Jacksonville coach Liam Coen. “If we had three [joint practices] and two days of work [within] Each of these joints, we would probably not play ”.

Their opponent, meanwhile, will sit on the new quarter Aaron Rodgers, the former MVP of his first season with Pittsburgh. He would have proposed to play, but was part of a group of 15 runners who will sit at least the first pre-season match because “they need less track to take off, to be completely honest with you,” said Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin.

A player as good as Burrow apparently needed a small proverbial track, but he described the change in philosophy of the Bengals as “the right decision”. But not everyone changes their approach to pre-season. Matthew Stafford, the starting quarter of the Los Angeles Rams, will not play in the opening of the team’s pre-season this week while dealing with a back injury.

But it didn’t take the injury to know that he would not take a single game game in August.

“There is no chance that you will never see Matthew Stafford to take a pre-season shot for the Rams as long as I am the coach,” said Mcvay in 2021. “It will never happen.”