A lot of fans either hate the preseason or completely love it. I am in the camp that I love the preseason. I love the underdog storylines, seeing our new draft picks play snaps, watching position competition and it just has football on television which is nice. Rarely are these games an indication of how good your team is going to be. It is not really until about week 3 or 4 do you really know how it is all coming together. During the pandemic I think we would all kill for any football on tv but this year is important for these games to happen for other reasons.
The first and foremost reason is getting Joe Burrow professional snaps. He is the week 1 starter which means he wouldn’t see a lot of action until week 3. When you are a rookie QB though and as proficient as Burrow is I think that he would play the first half of all four games. The more experience you can get him the better in my opinion and the preseason is a great time to screw up and learn. Sure there is risk of injury but he has to get snaps and work through the playbook.
The second reason would be competition. The Bengals have a brutal preseason schedule if these games actually mattered. They play the Chiefs, Vikings, Colts and Falcons. At least two of those teams are going to be in the playoffs in 2020 and maybe three (Colts). This is a chance for the Bengals to play against really good competition and test how well this roster is going to perform during showtime.
The third is the offensive line. They need to figure out who is playing where and with the potential for training camp to be limited every snap matters. We don’t know who is going to play in three of the five positions on that line. They need cohesion, they need to put it on tape and they need coaching.
The fourth is the linebackers. These guys are young and raw and are going to make mistakes. It’s best to learn early and figure out zone coverages than get torched by tight ends and speedy running backs. The arsenal of draft picks spent on this position will really benefit from the preseason games.
The last is the secondary. We basically have an entire new backfield and it is important for the corners and safeties to learn how to work together and understand when help is needed. This is a new defensive scheme for two starting CBs and a starting safety so guys like Jessie Bates and William Jackson III need to help get these guys up to speed.
The entire preseason could be erased and I think the NFL has a plan in place for that. So must the Bengals. If it is we are going to see a decent amount of bad football in the first few weeks. The really well run franchises like Baltimore, New England, New Orleans and Pittsburgh will really take advantage in that scenario.