What, if anything, to take away from the 2024 NFL preseason

The preseason is already over, which means we are a measly 10 (yes 10!) days away from the start of the NFL regular season. Hopefully no more injuries to report, and if we take CeeDee Lamb’s new deal with the Cowboys as an indicator, we might even see a few of the holdout situations get resolved.

But as we leave the preseason, what, if anything, can we take away from the last three weeks of action? As we’ve discussed here ad nausea, the short answer is probably not that much. Many teams didn’t even play their starters a single minute. The reigning 2-time Super Bowl champs are 0-3. Who cares? That being said, there are a few things – player competitions, general vibes, or disturbing yet consistent trends in the preseason that can tell us something about the season to come.

So, without further ado – what did we actually learn this preseason?

1. The 2024 Rookie QB class is here to stay: Every year there a lot of QBs taken in the draft, and every year we wonder whether or not it’ll be the 2020 class (Burrow, Tua, Herbert, Hurts, Love) or the 2021 class (Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Fields, Mac Jones…Yikes). Well, our takeaway from this preseason is that we’re much closer to the 2020 class, fingers crossed, than we are to the 2021 stinker. Caleb Williams is a legit talent. Jayden Daniels looks like one too. Even Bo Nix impressed in his limited action, and looks to be in the perfect situation. Throw in Drake Maye improving every preseason game, and J.J. McCarthy looking strong in his limited action before tearing his MCL, and it looks like the 2024 Rookie QB class is one that will be here to stay for awhile, and not just for the purposes of good content.

   

2. Unresolved QB Situations: In a perfect world, your QB situation is in well-manicured order long before you ever get to training camp. But in the event that it is not, you’d at least like to use the preseason to figure it out. Well, there are several places where, despite several weeks of training camp and preseason games, it is still unclear who the lead signal-caller is:

   • Pittsburgh: We’ve already hit on this multiple times, but does anyone know who’s starting in Pittsburgh? Certainly not Mike Tomlin yet. Neither QB has looked the part during preseason games, and it feels like the Steelers might have gone from having one bad quarterback to having two.

   • New England: This one is perhaps slightly more welcomed by the fan-base, but a combination of Drake Maye performing well in the preseason and Jacoby Brissett underperforming (and taking a big hit last weekend) leaves us wondering who will be starting for the Patriots week 1. We all expected Brissett to the starter, but here’s to guessing the Patriots fanbase would rather see Maye get a shot.

   • Falcons? I’m guessing head coach Raheem Morris wouldn’t classify his QB situation as “unresolved,” but we’re here to wonder out loud if there was anything behind the decision not to play Michael Penix the last two games of the preseason. Are they worried about Kirk Cousins’ health? Do they not want the Michael Penix hype-train to gain steam? Likely, they just thought they’d seen enough, and wanted to make sure Penix stayed healthy for the regular season – but hey, the decision not to get the rookie as many snaps as possible certainly made us wonder.

   • New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns: Neither of these are really QB competitions, but with both teams having QBs that have been decidedly mediocre in years passed, is it worth wondering whether Spencer Rattler in New Orleans or any combination of Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson or Tyler Huntley in Cleveland might be better options for their teams?

3. Will the Hold-out/Hold-in Situations resolve themselves in time for the regular season? It has definitely been the year of the hold-out Wide Receiver, with three of the most prominent receivers in the NFL – CeeDee Lamb, Ja’Marr Chase and Brandon Aiyuk – all holding out for new contracts. But there are others, including OT Trent Williams in San Francisco and Haason Reddick in New York. We already saw one deal resolve itself with the Cowboys getting a deal done with Lamb, but will these other situations resolve themselves before the regular season? Niners fans are certainly hoping so.

   

4. Super Bowl Hangover? Speaking of the Niners, the vibes from Santa Clara have not been good so far this year. Two of their best 6 players (Aiyuk, Williams) are not there, both holding out for new contracts. Christian McCaffrey called Aiyuk a “former teammate.” They had to cancel joint practices with the New Orleans Saints with the Niners dealing with several nagging injuries. And Brock Purdy has looked, well, pedestrian in his time on the field so far. The Super Bowl hangover is real. Only one team in the last 30 years (the 2017/18 Patriots) lost the Super Bowl, and then returned to the promised land the following year. Could the Niners do it? Sure. But they’re not off to a great start.

Here's the good news, for the 49ers and the rest of us - this is the last time we'll be writing about the preseason. Only 10 (!!) days til football season. As always, we look forward to the conversation, debate and your feedback. Hit us at @fieldvisionmi on X, @fieldvisionsports on Instagram, or on our website www.fieldvisionsports.com.