Matthew Stafford, Patrick Mahomes and preseason dangers
By Matt Conner
No fan of any NFL franchise should expect to see much in the way of the game’s biggest stars playing during the next few weeks of preseason games.
Yes, some and maybe even most starters will come in for a series or two, perhaps even an entire quarter. Some key contributors might even stretch that to one full half of play. However, for the most part, we’re all used to watching fringe roster players getting the bulk of playing time in these ultimately meaningless games.
When it comes to his most important offensive player, L.A. Rams head coach Sean McVay isn’t even interested in taking any chances. Instead of letting his best guys warm up a bit in actual competition or a live game setting, he’s taking the safest approach by not tempting fate at all. That’s the reason why Rams fans won’t see a peep out of new starting quarterback Matthew Stafford until the regular season begins.
Should the Chiefs hold out their stars during the preseason?
On a recent interview with Doug Gottlieb on Fox Sports Radio, McVay recently spoke frankly about the potential of losing a star player to an injury in such a ridiculous way—when the games don’t even count in standings. It’s clear he wasn’t even going to take the chance.
"“There is zero chance you will ever see Matthew Stafford take a snap in the preseason as long as I’m the coach. That will never happen. … Until you tell me that if a guy gets hurt in the preseason that we’ll get those games back or they’ll add them on the schedule afterwards… it’s hard for me to make sense of it.”"
McVay is known as one of the league’s smartest coaches overall, which leads us to wonder, if it makes no sense to him to play the game’s biggest stars, then should we expect to see just as little of the Chiefs’ stars as well until it matters?
It’s true that injuries can happen at any time, that living in fear is no way to live. That’s well and good in terms of a normal life, but football is a violent game and players will be lost with serious injuries in these preseason contests. There’s just no way around it.
How silly would it feel (and tragic) for someone like Patrick Mahomes or Tyreek Hill or Travis Kelce to suffer a major injury in a preseason game? How ridiculous would it be to slightly or seriously diminish the team’s chances of winning a Super Bowl just because the team thought it could be helpful to give a star an extra 8-10 reps in a preseason series? The what if game might sound unfair, but we’ve all watched it happen before—both to the Chiefs and plenty of other teams.
Listening to McVay makes it all sound very obvious, if it wasn’t already. If Mahomes was a first-year starter, then maybe he should earn some calculated reps in the next few weeks. If Kelce or Hill were on some sort of learning curve, then perhaps it’d be worth the preseason immersion. At this point, however, there’s nothing more to prove. All three are veterans with Hall of Fame potential. None of them should be playing a single preseason snap.
Keeping every star on the sideline for the entire preseason might make it hard to sell preseason tickets, but it’s also what could make the difference between punching a ticket to a deep postseason run. It’s already hard enough to stay healthy during the regular season and postseason even before the NFL decided to add another official game. The preseason should be cut out entirely for anyone who is truly not competing for anything meaningful or learning something important.