Preseason Gameday: 8•10•24, OPEN THREAD

Laddie Morse

The Kansas City Chiefs have arrived in Jacksonville, Florida to take on the Jaguars this evening at 6:00 CDT.

Each team will likely only have their starters playing in the first quarter, at most. On RGR Football, Ryan Tracy is of the opinion that the Chiefs will only use Patrick Mahomes and the first team on the first drive of the game …only… while his buddy, Chris Clark, thinks that Mahomes and the 1st team will play the whole first quarter. Which ever it is, we should get a good look at the players who will be starting against the Baltimore Ravens in 26 days from now.

The Chiefs will be raising their newest Super Bowl Banner during the pre-game ceremonies on that day and that should be a sight to behold, especially for the Ravens who thought they’d be doing the celebrating.

Still, Patrick Mahomes should end up playing in this game during the first drive at least. Then, we’ll see Carson Wentz take the majority of snaps the second and third quarters… then the third team will take over in the fourth quarter. Some have said, “1st team 1st quarter, 2nd team 2nd quarter, 3rd team 3rd quarter, and 4th team 4th quarter”… but I don’t know what that means since the Chiefs have only ever spoken about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd teams.

NFL = Not For Long

The NFL is considering playing an 18 game schedule, so that probably means one of the preseason games will go by the wayside. That actually means the last preseason game will count on a team’s overall record… in the future, not this year. Does that have anything to do with tonight’s game? No. However, when that does happen, this game, — the first preseason game – will likely be played as if it was the third game of the four game preseason… from the days of yore.

In 2021, the NFL extend the regular season to 17 games, and reducing the preseason to 3 games (except for teams playing in the Hall of Fame Game, who play an extra preseason contest). However, the season looks destined to go to 18 games per team… which means… the preseason will go to three games.

The Jaguars

The Head Coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars is Doug Pederson who used to coach for the Chiefs. In 2017, the team was nicknamed “Sacksonville” because they got 55 sacks that year. The odd thing about that is, they came in second to the Pittsburgh Steelers who had 56. Last year, in 2023, when the Chiefs came in second in sacks with 57, the Jags came in 25th in the NFL with 40. The Ravens, who the Chiefs beat in the 2023 AFC Championship game, came in first in sacks with 60. Also, the Steelers, fell out of the top ten last season with 47. My oh my how the mighty have fallen.

The year before last, the Chiefs came in 2nd in sacks with 55, also beat the winner in sacks, the Philadelphia Eagles (70), in the Super Bowl. Looks like two years in a row of, second in sacks… wins it all.

QB Play

Trevor Lawrence

Trevor Lawrence is now entering his 4th season for the Jags. He has had his completion percentage level out over his three seasons in the NFL. He started out at 59.6%, then his second year was at 66.3%, and last season went up to 65.6% (Mahomes completion percentage for his 7 year career is 66.5%. His lowest was 62.9%, which was for one game only in his first season, and that was against the Broncos). The first drive of the game is important for Lawrence because they were tied for second in the NFL last year at having a first drive of the game end up in a field goal attempt but they were 31st in having first drive of any game end in a TD.

With Christian Kirk and Gabe Davis as their primary weapons and having added WR Brian Thomas Jr. through the draft, the Jags offensive attack should be stellar, especially with RB Travis Etienne Jr. at the ready. The Jags offense also featured TE Evan Engram. Travis Etienne had over 1,000 yards rushing in each of his first two seasons. Christian Kirk has had 1,895 yards receiving in his first two eyars in Jacksonville (but was drafted by the Cardinals 47th overall in 2018, where he played his first three seasons). Gabe Davis had 2,730 yards receiving in his first four year for the Bengals. He had one year of 836 yards receiving in 2022. Evan Engram also had last year which makes their offense even more dangerous.These five players should have career years and if they do, the Jags will have an excellent year.

Patrick Mahomes

Patrick Mahomes is the GOAT. Even if the Chiefs don’t win a record best three Super Bowls in a row, he’s still the GOAT. Some will argue that the GOAT is Tom Brady, but let’s look at their first 96 games. Yes, a comparison:

Could you argue with that? You might, but it would be foolish. It’s crazy to think the rest of Mahomes career will be a downgrade. We’ll see. Also, there’s this:

Defenses

Jaguars

The Jaguars defense ranked 22nd overall. They didn’t make the playoffs last year and they allowed 342.8 yards per game. The Jags finished with a 9-and-8 record overall and were 10th in TDs allowed. That means 22 teams were better than the Jags

Chiefs

The Chiefs defense was ranked 2nd overall in 2023. They were the victors of Super Bowls LVII and LVIII, the last two in a row. They allowed 289.8 yards per game during the regular season and finished with an 11-and-6 record. The Chiefs were 31st in TDs allowed per game. Only one team was better.

Predictions

From statsalt.com comes this:

“Like Mahomes, Lawrence is set to get some

action in Saturday’s opener. Last year, he

played 13 plays (three series) in their preseason

opener against the Cowboys (W: 28-23). But

make no mistake, this is the preseason, and we’ll

see the backups get a bulk of the workload.”

From the same web site:

“This is also a profitable spot for the Chiefs,