Let's preface this quickly - it's preseason football. Preseason football is, in the great scheme of things, meaningless. It's a place where second- and third-stringers fight for jobs, it's not a place where first-stringers showcase. Part of this is because many teams run very vanilla schemes in the preseason, so as not to tip their hand to their foes and to give those men fighting for jobs the best opportunity to make an impact. Remember that the 2008 Lions, who infamously went 0-16, were undefeated in the preseason that year, 4-0.
A few Lions observations to start - Stafford looks good. He threw crisply and more accurately than I remember last season. Almost everything he threw was hitting his receivers in their hands and even the interception was more due to Jahvid Best than Stafford. I've been reading about his progress this season and it looks like it is translating to the field. He looked very comfortable with Calvin Johnson, too. Jahvid Best looks fast, but I have trouble buying him running up the middle at all. He's shifty, but he seems far better suited to cutback and outside running. If they throw him up the middle, he's going to get stuffed more often than not. The defensive line looks intimidating. I knew the first play the first-stringers were out because the Pittsburgh offensive line stopped moving backwards. Ndamukong Suh and Corey Williams look immense and indomitable - both men are moving other men. This will be the strength of the defense - and good thing, because the secondary is still severely lacking. Pressure on the QB will be necessary all game long and if a runner gets past the front-four, watch out.
On the Vikings - four sacks for Sam Bradford. The Viking defensive front looks solid, but even so, I think it's going to be a long year for Bradford. He doesn't have many weapons in St. Louis. Maybe that's why the Rams are reportedly pursuing Brian Westbrook - the more help they can get Bradford, the better. I still think that Favre will be back for the Vikings, but the debate is on between Sage Rosenfels and Tavaris Jackson already. I say wait on that - one preseason game does not make a starter when a position is in competition. The Vikings do look deep though, moreso than I expected. The offense looked sharp with a lot of its would-be starters out of the game. But then again, they were playing the Rams.
Other teams around the league - that was some comeback by the Arizona Cardinals against the Texans. Preseason or not, a 16-point second-half comeback is impressive and says a lot about the third-stringers in Arizona, their desire to play, and what Ken Whisenhunt is doing there... Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson still look like one of the best QB-WR tandems in the league... Green Bay lost to Cleveland, but Aaron Rodgers still looks like he's on fire and showing no signs of letting up. He is the best young quarterback in the league, I believe that's no longer a question - the Packers, regardless of the grace of how it was done, made the right decision letting Favre go... Washington looks a little frightening on offense... it might have been Buffalo's defense, in part, but their passing game looked solid, even with disgraced Rex Grossman leading the attack. And in typical Mike Shanahan fashion, the Redskins are absolutely flush with talented RBs - Clinton Portis, Willie Parker, Larry Johnson and Ryan Torain - enough so that this team will always have fresh, reliable legs all season long. This is an invaluable trait of a Mike Shanahan offense and is a huge part of his success. I don't entirely buy Washington yet, but if I were in the NFC East, I'd be keeping my eye on this team... Carolina looks like a young team in transition, I'm not sure if I buy Jimmy Clausen yet, he looks impatient in the pocket for someone with so much hype about him... Baltimore looks like it will be a dangerous passing team this year, with Anquan Boldin, Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton and Donte' Stallworth... Miami looked horrible in the rain, it seemed like neither Chad Henne nor Brandon Marshall could get a grip on the ball. I'm sure Tony Sparano is hoping that was only due to the rain.
Quick injury note - RB Ben Tate for the Houston Texans might be out for the year. That certainly alters their RB landscape and, assuming they don't add another running back before the season starts, means that the progress of Steve Slaton and Arian Foster become crucial to their offense. It also means that both Slaton and Foster get significant fantasy value boosts, since Ben Tate was getting talk of being the opening-day starter.
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