NFL Final Preseason Takeaways Before Opening Night

Last Updated on agosto 24, 2026 3:55 pm by Erwin Noguera

The dress rehearsal is over. Starters have taken their last meaningful snaps of the summer, and what remains before the August 30 cutdown is roster football played by men trying to keep a job in the NFL.

Two things stand out from the weekend. Pittsburgh was shut out 17-0 by the Jets with Aaron Rodgers watching in street clothes for the second time. And the most impressive rookie of the entire preseason has now played exactly one half of football since early August.

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Here is what actually carries into September.

1. Pittsburgh Has a Problem It Will Not Discuss

Rodgers has not taken a preseason snap. Neither has Mason Rudolph. Mike McCarthy said for weeks that he wanted his 42-year-old quarterback on the field, then held him out of every opportunity.

The result on Friday was a 17-0 shutout. Will Howard took the first half, Drew Allar the second, and neither could produce a point against a Jets team that has spent two years being the punchline of the AFC East.

There are two readings. Either Pittsburgh is carefully managing a quarterback who turns 43 this season and sees no value in exposing him, or there is something they have chosen not to say. Neither is comforting three weeks out, and the Steelers now open the regular season with a starter who has taken zero live snaps since January.

2. Carson Beck Has Played One Half of Football

The best individual performance of the preseason (15 of 19 for 188 yards, a touchdown, a 125.4 rating in the Hall of Fame Game) has not been followed by anything at all.

Beck missed the Raiders game with a rib injury. Mike LaFleur then confirmed he would not play against Dallas either, with Gardner Minshew starting in his place. The rookie has resumed throwing, but his summer is effectively finished.

That is a genuinely bad outcome for Arizona. A third-round pick who looked like a long-term answer for one half in Canton now heads into the season with almost no tape, no rhythm, and a quarterback room he has had no opportunity to climb.

3. Joe Milton Just Won a Job

The most decisive individual performance of the weekend, and it came from a backup.

Milton went 9 of 13 for 176 yards with three total touchdowns as Dallas routed Arizona 34-13. He threw a 53-yard touchdown to Jonathan Mingo, then hit Camden Brown for 70 yards and finished the drive himself with a one-yard run a play later.

Dallas moved to 2-0 in the preseason and outgained the Cardinals 418 yards to 320. Combined with their opener against Seattle (338 yards and 11 of 15 on third down), the Cowboys have been the most organised team in exhibition football, and Milton has made the QB2 conversation a formality.

4. Denver’s Home Record Meant Nothing

Denver came in 7-0 straight up in preseason home games since 2020. They lost 33-13.

Bo Nix looked sharp in his return to action, which is the detail that matters for September. Everything around him did not. Green Bay , a team without Micah Parsons until at least Week 6, coming off a 28-9 loss to Pittsburgh and priced as a six-point underdog, won by twenty.

The Broncos’ centre problem is the likely culprit. Luke Wattenberg had only just returned to practice, Alex Forsyth was out, and third-stringer Michael Deiter is gone for the season with a torn quadriceps. If that unit does not settle, the promising Denver season a lot of people are forecasting gets considerably harder.

5. New England Rested Everyone and Won Anyway

The Patriots sat Drake Maye and the rest of the starters, handed the offence to Tommy DeVito, and still beat Philadelphia 24-21 on a late Nick DeGennaro touchdown.

Depth wins preseason games and tells you almost nothing about January. What does matter is the news from the joint practices that preceded it: A.J. Brown dislocated a thumb working against the Eagles. For a receiver New England acquired specifically to transform the offence, and who has barely been on a field with Maye in live action, that is a complication they did not need.

Philadelphia, meanwhile, remains short at receiver. Makai Lemon cannot shake recurring hamstring problems, and DeVonta Smith only returned to practice last week.

6. The Health Ledger

The most reliable information the preseason produced was who is available. The confirmed season-enders now include Jalon Walker (Falcons), Ricky Pearsall (49ers), Roy Robertson-Harris (Giants), Bryan Bresee (Saints), Jamal Adams (Vikings), Michael Deiter (Broncos), Dillon Radunz (Saints), Julian Hill (Patriots) and Robbie Ouzts (Seahawks).

Add the long-term absences that shape divisions: Laremy Tunsil out for most or all of the season, Coby Bryant gone four to six months, Micah Parsons targeting Week 6, and Patrick Mahomes eight months removed from a torn ACL and LCL.

How Our Picks Did

We published four picks on Thursday. Being straight about them:

Jets -1.5: correct. We predicted Jets 20-13 and got a 17-0 shutout: right side, right spread, and the only score prediction that landed the correct winner.

Cowboys +1.5: correct. We took Dallas getting points, and they won outright, 34-13. The predicted score of Cardinals 23-20 was wrong in every respect, but the bet was the right one.

Under 40.5 in Denver: wrong. The game finished at 46.

Under 36.5 at Gillette: wrong. That one finished at 45.

Two from four on the bets, and one from four on the sides. The lesson is one we wrote down ourselves two weeks ago and then ignored: blindly taking preseason unders is not a strategy. Backups competing for roster spots play aggressively, and both of our unders lost by a wide margin rather than narrowly.

What Carries Into Opening Night

Rodgers’s first live snap will come in a regular-season game. No preseason work, a 43rd birthday approaching, and a division containing two Super Bowl contenders.

Arizona has no read on its rookie. One half in Canton is the entire body of evidence, and the season starts against the Chargers.

Dallas looks like the most prepared team in exhibition football. That has historically meant very little. It is still the only thing the preseason measures cleanly.

New England’s receiver situation needs watching. Brown’s thumb, on top of a schedule that ranks among the hardest in the league after last year’s easy one.

Cutdown day is August 30. Rosters go to 53, and the waiver wire briefly fills with players who can solve somebody’s problem. Seattle needs a running back. Washington needs a tackle. Philadelphia needs a receiver.

The regular season opens on September 9.