Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams had a solid start to preseason play with a 31-21 win over the Dallas Cowboys. While it was nice to see the Rams on the winning side, honestly, who cares? Why should anyone care about such a meaningless result? More so, what possesses anyone to give two hoots about the preseason?
The talking point surrounding the existence of preseason play has been done to death, but it’s worth bringing up once more. Most NFL fans, including those who follow this site, would love it if preseason games were eliminated from the face of the earth. I understand that it’s a temporary fix for our football cravings, but how desperate do you have to be to sit through an entire game? No way in hell would I do it … sober.
I’ve never understood why anyone puts stock into preseason games. It’s hard to care about watching third and fourth-stringers play against teams fielding the same units for a solid chunk of the game. The majority of those players are unlikely to see an NFL field in the regular season anytime soon, if at all.
If I wanted to watch crappy football with a bunch of nobodies, I’d just flip on the UFL.
Okay, Stetson Bennett looked good last night and everything, but again, who cares?
Preseason is good for giving guys like Bennett valuable reps to see how far they’ve come in training camp. Still, preseason is not an accurate indicator of real NFL game play, as teams rarely field their first and second-team units for long. But sure, tell me again about how much a backup to the backup quarterback shredded the other team’s backups.
The main reason I cannot take the preseason seriously is that countless players who have looked like stars in the exhibition matches and made the final roster never amount to anything.
Lance McCutcheon is an excellent example of what I’m talking about. McCutcheon was an undrafted free agent in 2022 and led the league in receiving yards during that year’s preseason, eventually making the Rams’ 53-man roster out of training camp. He looked like a promising addition to the team’s receiving corps and instead, appeared in 10 games in his rookie campaign, starting one, but never recorded a reception. This offseason, McCutcheon is suiting up for his third team since failing to make L.A.‘s roster in 2023.
I’m very negative about anything related to the preseason, even though there have been several instances of players who have gone on to have great careers following strong play in exhibition play. Broncos legend Terrell Davis unofficially saw his Hall of Fame career take off after a monster hit in a preseason game in Japan. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott landed the starting gig in Dallas when he demonstrated his veteran pose in preseason. That pose transitioned well to the regular season, though not to preseason success, even though he expects to face the Rams in the NFC Championship.
However, those success stories—and whatever...
