Ladies and gentlemen, we have made it. The Hall of Fame game on Thursday marked the start of football season, but this week the Cincinnati Bengals face the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers face the Pittsburgh Steelers in their kick-off games at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday. That’s when the preseason will really have begun. It’s been a long time coming, but football season is right around the corner.

The casual NFL fan doesn’t really tune into preseason games, but they absolutely should. And not just because it’s the first football action of the year, but because you can really learn a lot about a team during the preseason.

Most teams will give their starters a few drives in the first game, and maybe a couple in the second, but in reality, we’re mostly going to see the second and third stringers. But you can’t win a Super Bowl without great depth, so while your team may have a good starting lineup, the preseason is where we learn which teams have quality depth.

Week 1 of the NFL preseason kicks off on Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET and runs through Saturday night. There are a bunch of intriguing games, but if you only have time to watch one every day, here are the ones I would choose.

Thursday: Arizona Cardinals vs Las Vegas Raiders

Okay, okay, okay, hear me out. I know there are a lot of other games that sound more interesting (Packers/Steelers, Lions/Bengals, Colts/Patriots), but part of what I love about the preseason is watching the rookies play, and there isn’t a game on Thursday that has the more intriguing rookies.

Let’s start with the Las Vegas Raiders, who used the first overall pick in the draft to select Fernando Mendoza, the man who won the Heisman Trophy and led the Indiana Hoosiers to an undefeated record and the National Championship. We’re going to see Mendoza in action for the first time on Thursday night, and who is he going to play against? The quarterback he faced in the National Championship.

Carson Beck, who led the Miami Hurricanes on a magical College Football Playoff run and came up just short of the national title, will be on the other side of the field. He already gave Cardinals fans a reason to pay attention after throwing for 188 yards and a touchdown on 15-of-19 passing in the Hall of Fame Game. That performance doesn’t settle anything, preseason defenses and game plans are limited, but it does raise the stakes for his next look. After a stellar HOF game performance where he completed 15 of his 19 passes for 188 yards and one touchdown, he’s going to look to out-duel the No. 1 overall pick.

And that’s what makes this matchup particularly fun: Mendoza isn’t simply making his NFL debut in isolation. He’s stepping into a game against the quarterback who stood across from him in the national championship game, while Beck is coming off the better-known NFL debut of the two. There is a very natural measuring stick here, even if neither quarterback should be judged too harshly on one preseason outing.

But that’s not all. We still don’t know if Jeremiah Love is going to play after sitting out the HOF game, but you have to think the Cardinals wouldn’t sit their rookie for the entire preseason. Love was the No. 3 overall pick and the highest-drafted running back in the 2026 draft, so getting his first live NFL reps is a storyline in its own right. I think he’s going to get some playing time, and it should be in this game.

The Raiders also have two exciting, young defensive backs expected to make their NFL debuts in this game. Jermod McCoy, their fourth-round pick who has the talent of a first-rounder, is expected to suit up this week, although his workload is something to watch given his recovery from a knee injury. Treydan Stukes is another rookie defensive back who’s going to see significant playing time this week.

Stukes isn’t just another late-round developmental piece, either. The Raiders took him 38th overall after he tied for Arizona’s team lead with four interceptions in 2025, and he brings the versatility to work around the secondary. That makes his first extended NFL action particularly useful for a Raiders team trying to figure out exactly how its young defensive backs fit together.

There is a plethora of young talent expected to play in this game, and most of them should see a significant amount of playing time. That’s enough to make this more than just a showcase for Mendoza. It’s a first look at how two teams are beginning to sort through young pieces that could matter well beyond August.

Friday: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs New York Jets

There are only three games on Friday, but the best one by a significant margin is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New York Jets. These two teams had some of the best draft classes back in April, so once again, there are going to be plenty of game-changing rookies taking the field this Friday. And this one has an extra wrinkle: the teams have spent the week practicing against each other, so there is already some live context behind what we’re about to see.

The Jets have a trio of first-round picks, two of whom are expected to play in this game. David Bailey, the second overall pick in the draft, did tweak his ankle in practice, but is day-to-day and could very well suit up in this game. That status is worth watching right up until kickoff, particularly because Bailey had already been one of the more impressive players in Jets camp before the injury. He recorded two would-be sacks in the team’s Aug. 8 scrimmage and repeatedly created pressure, so there is a legitimate reason to want to see him against another NFL roster rather than simply because of where he was drafted.

The Jets also have Omar Cooper Jr., one of the more exciting receivers in this rookie class, who will make his debut on Friday. Unfortunately, the best tight end in the class, Kenyon Sadiq, will not play after suffering a setback from his hernia surgery. Sadiq’s absence is particularly frustrating because the Jets invested the No. 16 overall pick in him, but the setback has already cost him valuable practice time. That leaves Cooper as an even more important rookie offensive player to watch in this first game.

But even outside of those three, the Jets have some more young talent expected to play this week. D’Angelo Ponds, who was one of the best cornerbacks in football but slid to the second round due to his smaller frame, will take the field alongside fellow rookie defensive back VJ Payne. New York’s fourth-round rookie quarterback, Cade Klubnik, should also get some playing time this week.

Klubnik isn’t battling Geno Smith for the starting job, but that doesn’t make his reps meaningless. The Jets need to know what they have behind their veteran starter, and preseason snaps are where a young quarterback can begin making a case for a larger role, even if that role is initially just as the No. 2.

Moving to the Buccaneers, while they don’t have the headlining offensive talent the Jets have, they have three thrilling defensive rookies in Rueben Bain Jr., Josiah Trotter and Keionte Scott who are all expected to play this week. Bain in particular is worth keeping an eye on. Tampa Bay took him 15th overall after he led the FBS in pressures with 83 in his final college season, so the Bucs didn’t draft him simply for rotational upside, they are expecting him to become a meaningful part of the defense.

But we also can’t forget about Ted Hurst, the 6-foot-4 man out of Georgia State who ran a 4.42-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. That combination of size and speed is precisely why a preseason game matters for a player like Hurst. The question isn’t whether he looks impressive in shorts; it’s whether he can consistently turn that physical profile into separation, contested catches and usable NFL snaps.

Are the Jets and Buccaneers going to be very good this year? Probably not, but they both drafted a very strong core that could propel them to the playoffs in the future, and they’re all going to be on the field on Friday. That’s the bigger reason to watch this game. You aren’t necessarily watching two finished teams. You’re watching two teams trying to figure out whether some of these young players can become the foundation of the next version of their rosters.

Saturday: Browns vs Bears

There are a lot of games on this Saturday, but there aren’t many that have one of the best rookie classes and a quarterback battle going on at the same time.

The Cleveland Browns have a very interesting preseason ahead of them. First, they have a quarterback battle raging between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders. Technically, Dillon Gabriel and Taylen Green are also part of the quarterback room, so calling it a two-man race is a little too neat. But Watson and Sanders remain the central competition, and the Browns have been deliberately using their reps to evaluate how the quarterbacks perform with different personnel.

Watson, who is coming off two torn Achilles, and hasn’t played well since arriving in Cleveland, seems to be the leader in the clubhouse right now, but Sanders is not going to relinquish the starting job easily. These two will fight throughout the preseason and training camp to see who gets the starting role. And that battle has become more interesting rather than less as camp has progressed. Watson has recently taken first-team reps on days that were expected to feature Sanders, while the Browns have continued to insist the competition remains open. That makes every preseason rep matter a little more, because the question isn’t just who looks good, it’s who can separate himself from the other guy.

But that’s not all for Cleveland. The Browns also have a very intriguing rookie class, which is highlighted by two first-round picks: Spencer Fano and KC Concepcion. Fano is a tackle that can play any position on the offensive line, so it’ll be interesting to see where they use him in Week 1. As for Concepcion, he’s a speedy receiver that Cleveland desperately needed, and I want to see which quarterback he works best with. Same goes for Cleveland’s second-round receiver, Denzel Boston.

That last part could be more important than it sounds. With the quarterback situation unsettled, Cleveland needs to find out which young pass-catchers can create easy answers for whoever wins the job. Concepcion and Boston don’t need to solve the Browns’ offense in August, but showing that they can consistently win their matchups would make the quarterback decision easier, not harder. The Browns’ training camp reports have already singled out both rookie receivers for their consistency and playmaking.

The Browns also got a steal in safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, who inexplicably fell to the second round. They also selected Taylen Green, one of the biggest athletic freaks in the draft, at quarterback. Both of these guys should also see the field on Saturday.

McNeil-Warren is another player who makes this roster worth watching beyond the headline names. Cleveland traded up to No. 58 to get him, and his strengths, particularly his downhill ability and run support, give the Browns a young defensive piece to evaluate immediately. Green, meanwhile, brings a completely different dimension to the quarterback room with his size, speed and arm strength, even if he still needs polish as a passer.

The Chicago Bears don’t have a ton of intrigue on their side. They have some exciting rookies such as Dillon Thieneman and Zavion Thomas, but most of my attention is going to be on Cleveland in this game. Chicago’s side of the matchup is still worth watching for one reason: this is preseason, and that means the back end of the roster matters. The Bears already have injury concerns across the roster, so their most important objective may simply be getting through the game healthy while evaluating their young players.

Saturday is a loaded slate, though, so if you have time, try to tune in to as many as possible.