<p>-
- NFL preseason: 5 things to watch in Week 1, including Shedeur Sanders' start and the J.J. McCarthy era beginning</p>
<p>Charles McDonaldAugust 6, 2025 at 10:02 PM</p>
<p>The NFL preseason is about to kick off leaguewide, and while some teams and players have more at stake than others, there's no shortage of interesting storylines. Here are five things to watch in preseason Week 1.</p>
<p>Shedeur Sanders is starting in a prime-time preseason game, because of courseBrowns at Panthers, 7 p.m. ET Friday</p>
<p>Would ya look at that. The stars have aligned for the perfect game to get people interested in the NFL preseason, with Browns fifth-round rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders getting the nod to start their opener against the Panthers. Sanders has been a lightning rod for a few years dating back to his play at Colorado, and now he's going to get the first crack at playing quarterback for the rudderless Browns this season. This decision is largely because of injuries to Dillon Gabriel and Kenny Pickett, but it still will give him a chance to start to separate himself heading into the middle of training camp. Sanders hasn't practiced much with the starters this preseason, which is to be expected as a fifth-round pick, and now can make his mark.</p>
<p>[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season]</p>
<p>It's important for everyone to remain level-headed about this. Neither a good nor bad performance means much here. Pickett torched the preseason prior to his last season starting in Pittsburgh. However, it's a start and it's something for Sanders fans to latch onto because he probably won't be playing much during the regular season. The biggest piece of intrigue here is if he can play well enough to surpass the third round-rookie Gabriel on the depth chart.</p>
<p>The J.J. McCarthy era is here</p>
<p>Texans at Vikings, 4 p.m. ET Saturday</p>
<p>Mulligan. After being a top-10 pick for the Vikings in 2024, J.J. McCarthy tore his meniscus, resulting in him missing his entire rookie season while Sam Darnold helped take the Vikings to the playoffs. Now, it's the McCarthy show and he's got a chance to have a breakout season in his first year with the reins in his hands. To help his cause, the Vikings completely revamped their interior offensive line and gave themselves, on paper, one of the best offensive lines in the entire league. Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison (minus the first three games) are still here and Kevin O'Connell will put McCarthy in good spots.</p>
<p>It's an interesting place for McCarthy to be in his first year as a starter. McCarthy probably should have the expectations of a rookie. On the other hand, everyone knows if he's good enough, the Vikings may be able to go on a run deep into the playoffs. No pressure. He might have the biggest spotlight of any young quarterback in the league with what this team feels like it can accomplish.</p>
<p>Chip Kelly makes his return to the NFL</p>
<p>Raiders at Seahawks, 7 p.m. ET Thursday</p>
<p>After nine seasons away from the NFL, including a stop as head coach at UCLA and calling plays for Ohio State, Chip Kelly is back at the professional level. Kelly's last stint in the NFL came as the head coach of the 49ers in 2016, which coincided with an unimaginative offense and one of the worst defenses in the league. While college football is certainly a different game than the NFL, Kelly seems to be rejuvenated and had UCLA moving in the right-ish direction before taking over the Buckeyes' offense and winning a national championship.</p>
<p>Now, Kelly is in Las Vegas running the Raiders' offense for the newly hired Pete Carroll. The Raiders needed an upgrade at offensive play-caller with how poorly they performed last season and it'll be interesting to see what Kelly plans to do with his new offense. Geno Smith, Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty are a nice little trio to get things moving, but they'll need Kelly to be the offensive genius he's billed to be in order to keep pace with the other teams in the division. Kelly has been a centerpiece figure of the past two decades of college and pro football, now he's back and has to get this Raiders offense moving in a hurry.</p>
<p>The first step for Travis Hunter's quest to do the unthinkableSteelers at Jaguars, 7 p.m. ET Saturday</p>
<p>Modern NFL fans have their version of a renaissance man who hasn't been seen in a very, very long time. Jaguars rookie Travis Hunter appears to be headed toward doing the unthinkable: be a near full-time player on both sides of the ball. Right now, Hunter has been running with the starters on offense while rotating in on defense, but his skill level at cornerback is all the talk in Jacksonville. He might be too good at that position to not start. The Jaguars will get a first glimpse at the feasibility of Hunter's two-way goals in their preseason opener.</p>
<p>It's unknown how many snaps Hunter will play this weekend, but this is the most fascinating rookie of this era of football. There's a long way to go in terms of figuring out if an NFL player can play significant snaps on offense and defense, but the fact that he's talented enough to try makes him an all-time prospect. Even in the preseason, this is going to be worth carving out time for, just from a spectacle standpoint.</p>
<p>Anthony Richardson's last chanceColts at Ravens, 7 p.m. ET Thursday</p>
<p>It seems like the Colts are on their last legs with this whole Anthony Richardson thing and now he finds himself in a quarterback battle for his job … against Daniel Jones. Truthfully, it's a little unclear what exactly Jones is supposed to provide that Richardson doesn't already, so if he can handle business in camp and during the preseason he should at least get one more shot to be the Week 1 starter for the Colts.</p>
<p>The book on Richardson is the same as it's always been. He has all the physical talent in the world, sees the field well enough, but his accuracy has been all over the place. If he can find a way to increase his completion percentage and scale back some of the deep passing attempts, there's room for him to continue as the Colts' starting quarterback — but the clock's been ticking and every single rep, preseason included, will help determine his future.</p>
<a href="https://data852.click/5a32cd58501e613bf372/ee0a75caf0/?placementName=default" class="dirlink-1">Original Article on Source</a>
Source: "AOL Sports"
Source: AsherMag
Read More >> Full Article on Source: Astro Blog
#US #ShowBiz #Sports #Politics #Celebs